Bhubaneswar, Feb 12: Orissa has requested the Centre to persuade NTPC not to cut its power supply on account of dues owed to the power company by the state government. National Thermal Power Corporatifon has threatened to regulate power supply to Orissa from February 15 next.
Orissa's energy minister Suryanarayan Patra said he had written a letter to the Union power minister Ananth Geete requesting him to ask NTPC to accept the state's proposal to pay Rs 120 crore for the time being against Rs 284.45 crore bill of October to December last.
The Grid Corporation of Orissa Ltd (GRIDCO) had paid only Rs 90.89 crore of the bill while a balance of Rs 193.56 crore was still remained to be cleared.
Patra said he also pleaded with the central minister to make NTPC agree to GRIDCO's proposal to securitise other arrears and stop from regulating power supply to the state.
Orissa has been going through a prolonged power crisis for about a year with load-shedding continuing in urban centres for an hour every day while the power cut was for a duration of two hours in rural areas.
Monsoon failure last year had badly affected generation from the state's several major hydel projects leading to the crisis.
The state drew over 600 MW of electricity from NTPC's eastern grid daily and any move to regulate the supply would aggravate the crisis, official sources said. Bureau Report