Not a single MW or unit of electricity is generated by Bihar government owned power plants: Piyush Goyal

By NewsGram Staff-Writer

Patna: Piyush Goyal, the Union Power Minister stated that the electricity generated in Bihar power plants was zero. The statement came after the Nitish Kumar's state government published a full-page advertisement in newspapers that claimed that Bihar has improved its power scenario.

The Economic Times report quotes Goyal as saying: "Not a single MW or unit of electricity is generated by Bihar government owned power plants. The entire power supply to Bihar is being met by the Centre."

The Minister added that the Center is providing 2800 MW of power to Bihar on a daily basis, out of which around 484 MW of power is beyond the allocated share of the state.

Goyal said: "The ground reality belies all those claims being made by the Nitish Kumar government about improvement in power situation in Bihar." And asked the state government about when it is going to start power production, as per the ET report.

Goyal also hit back at the Bihar government regarding transmission infrastructure and transmission losses. He said that at least 46% of the power gets lost during transmission which is "unacceptably high". Pointing towards the poor quality of transmission infrastructure, Goyal said that during last five years, around 46000 transformers had been changed due to their poor quality. He added that with the current transmission infrastructure consisting of 628 power stations and 98 grid sub-stations, it is not possible to provide electricity to all villages.

The per capita power consumption in Bihar is just 200 units, as against 1000 units at the national level.