State Power Minister : Rs 27,000 cr invested in Bengal power sector in 11 years

Power Minister Arup Biswas, the West Bengal government has invested Rs 27,000 crore in the power sector since 2011 to increase generation, transmission, and distribution capacity. He stated that more investments, including those in thermal, solar, and hydel capacities, would be undertaken in the upcoming years to raise the overall power capacity from the present 9,521 MW to 13,689 MW.

West Bengal has enough power, according to Biswas, to meet the demand. According to him, recent power outages were caused by storm-related damage to distribution networks and unauthorised electricity use by some retail customers. On June 8 of this year, the demand peaked and was satisfactorily met.

Following Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition, who claimed that the recent power outages in the state had brought to the sector's collapse, the minister made his declaration. According to Biswas, due to regulatory compliance, the state has gradually phased out one thermal power unit at the Kolaghat facility and another at Bandel. The minister added that new thermal capacity has been added by the state totaling 1,250 MW during the past 11 years, and new capacity is being built, including a 660 MW supercritical power plant at Sagardighi near Murshidabad.

The Mamata Banerjee administration has created a variety of transmission and distribution facilities in its two terms since 2011, in addition to generation, according to Biswas. The state intends to construct a 1,760 MW solar capacity, obtain 230 MW from Bhutan and 118 MW from Teesta hydropower projects, as well as 1,000 MW from the Turga Pumped Storage Power Plant. The demand has climbed to 9,200 MW from 4,085 MW, and the minister claims that the subscriber base has grown from 80 lakh during the previous Left Front rule to 2.33 crore now.