Imphal, September 06, 2010: The existing power shortage crisis in the State is unlikely to get over until 2012. On the other hand, even as the State Government would like to import power from outside the State to ameliorate the crisis, the State has been receiving less from the central pool due to absence of adequate transmission line.

A top official of Power Department informed The Sangai Express that the existing power crisis would remain till 2012. The situation would improve after 2012 when the power projects being built at Paltana, Tirpura and Bongaigaon, Assam are commissioned.

The State is entitled to certain shares of power from both the projects.

But it requires a double circuit transmission line of 400 KV connecting Silchar-Jiribam and Imphal.

As such, the State may not benefit from the two projects if the requisite transmission lines cannot be installed before the projects are commissioned.

Although the daily requirement of power for the State is 110 MW, the State is receiving only 90 MW due to inefficiency of the transmission line from Jiribam to Imphal.

In the meantime, the Department has been making all efforts to ensure regular supply of electricity to the public.

However, 80 to 90 per cent of the power supplied by the department went to unauthorised consumers.

This has further aggravated the crisis of power shortage.

On the other hand, the heavy fuel power project installed at Leimakhong is no longer viable as its fuel now costs Rs 38 per litre.

This means generating one unit of power would entail an expenditure of Rs 10 lakhs.

The official further informed that survey work for construction of dam of the Loktak Downstream Project having installed capacity of 65 MW would begin from next month.

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