'Bengal ready to provide quality power to industries'

Kolkata: The state is ready to provide uninterrupted and quality power supply to the industries, state Power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said.

He was addressing the 'East India Energy Forum' organised by the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) at a city hotel on Friday. During his speech, the minister categorically pointed out that the power generation in the surplus in the state and his department is ready to cope with the extra burden.

He also reminded that the state is already exporting power to our neighbouring state, Bangladesh.

"The state is growing fast. It is ready to accept any challenge. We are also committed to provide uninterrupted and quality power, not only to the new industries coming up to the state, but also to the households," Chattopadhyay said.

It may be mentioned here that the state government has increased the budget allocation by a few times after the Mamata Banerjee government came to power. A host of new projects have been initiated.

According to the minister, the project to provide electricity to households has been done up to 99.99 percent. The state government has been carrying a subsidy of Rs 808 crore in the power sector so that the people are not overburdened, the minister said.

He also said that his department is taking up big projects of laying underground electric cable connections at 75 towns across the state. It may be mentioned that the Power department has laid great emphasis on the development of renewable energy.