Shillong, April 27: There seems to be no respite in sight for the people of Meghalaya as the load shedding is set continue longer with the state’s share in the national power grid taking a hit after shut down of few power projects and its inability to cough-up extra cash to buy power from private players and PSUs. The situation is so bad that even the Umiam Hydro power plant is at the risk of being shut down if the water level keeps falling.
State Power Minister Abu Taher Mondal on Wednesday said the load shedding will continue till the state gets some relief in the Grid. “This issue will continue till we get some relief in the Grid,” Mondal told reporters. He, however, assured that steps are being taken to address the issue and said, “We are taking all steps possible to see that the load shedding hours are minimized.”
Maintaining that the government cannot afford to buy power at a high rate, he said, “We can buy (power) within our limit. We cannot go beyond that otherwise it will put us in more financial crunch.”
When asked, Mondal said the situation has got nothing to do with the previous government but it is because this time the rain is very erratic unlike other years where the state received rainfall in the month of February-March also.
“This time we are in a peculiar situation. Though our neighbouring states are receiving rainfall, only we are not receiving rainfall. Only yesterday we got some quality rainfall but it is not going to improve the scenario,” he added.
Further, Mondal said shutdowns of power projects like Kopili stage-I of 200 MW from where the state gets 35MW as share, Khandong power station of 50 MW (state share is 8.51MW) and Kopili stage-II of 25 MW (state share is 3.45 MW) has really affected the state of Meghalaya.
He also informed that the Leshka power project has also been shut down completely because of no water.
The minister further informed that he had reviewed the water level of the Umiam and warned “We may have to shut down (this power project if the water level keeps on falling).”
