Looking into the pace of development in the power sector, Manipur will be self-sufficient in power within the next two years, as per Power Minister Th Biswajit.
During the State Assembly session on Tuesday, Minister Thongam Biswajit responded to a query raised by opposition MLA K Meghachandra on behalf of MLA K Ranjit. He revealed that the state requires approximately 250 MW of electricity during peak hours.
Although the overall project is yet to be executed, the pre-construction work on the Loktak downstream project, which costs around Rs 63.5389 crore, has been completed.
He also mentioned that the construction of a mini hydroelectric project that can generate 300 megawatts of power is almost done.
With 90 percent of funding from the central government and assistance from the World Bank, the project will make Manipur self-sufficient in power generation once implemented.
Biswajit further said that there will be no load-shedding as the construction of the ring road grid line in Imphal city has been completed. Additionally, the ring road grid line will enable the procurement of electricity of 400kv, 132kv, and 33kv from any state in the country, in addition to power from the eastern grid.
Regarding power supply in the hill districts, the minister reported that new pre-paid meters have been installed in 2.20 lakh houses. Of the total 5.20 lakh consumers in the hill districts, 4.64 lakh have become pre-paid consumers.
Earlier, the state had difficulty procuring electricity from other states at a rate of Rs 10 to Rs 13 per unit of electricity as it could only produce 100 megawatts of power per day during the rainy season and 70/80 megawatts during the lean season.
However, due to a significant increase in revenue collection, the state’s debt amount has decreased from Rs 130/140 crore to only Rs 65 crore now. As soon as the government clears all the debts, the state’s problems will be significantly reduced.