Shillong, March 28: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has expressed that the power department and Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) is currently one of the biggest challenges the government is facing due to multiple areas of concern, especially loans. He, however, was hopeful that some respite could be in sight as NTPC could reduce interest rates on some of the loans following his recent visit to New Delhi wherein he met with the Union Power Minister, officials of the Power Ministry and NTPC officials.

During a recent visit to Delhi, Sangma held discussions with the Government of India, various central agencies, and companies such as NTPC and NHPC. The discussions focused on resolving the many pending issues which will ultimately lead to the improvement of the financial health of MeECL.

MeECL has taken multiple loans from NHPC, with some at high interest rates, which are being discussed to be adjusted and reduced. For the case of NTPC, where the agreement was signed a long time back, the Meghalaya government discussed with them how to have a better understanding of the entire issue and how they could resolve it.

“So our visit to Delhi was to seek the support of the Honourable Minister and find out ways in which we can move forward, for example, the NHPC, there are multiple loans that we have taken and some of them the loans taken were at very high interest rate. And, therefore, we had discussions and meetings with NHPC in the presence of the minister, whether those interest rates could be adjusted and reduced. And so we figured out how to do it and we are expecting that the interest rate will be reduced for certain loans where interest rate was pretty high,” informed Sangma.

While the Meghalaya government is still in the process of streamlining different areas to bring back the financial health of MeECL, the steps taken so far are a good start. The interest rate is expected to be reduced for certain loans where the interest rate was pretty high, he said.

Sangma added that the process to address the MeECL crisis will continue, with the government aiming to tackle the issues and streamline different areas to bring back financial stability to MeECL.