Union power minister inspects Bawana gas power station

On the intervening night of 11 and 12 June, union power minister Piyush Goyal inspected the Bawana power plant, in light of grave concerns arising out of the recent electricity shortages in the city. 

He visited the Bawana power station to check whether his directions for the supply of gas to the plant were being adhered to by concerned officials. Till 4 June, the Bawana plant was not producing even a single mega watt of power, due to unavailability of gas. As per Goyal’s direction, Bawana started supplying 470 MW on Wednesday and 450 MW on Thursday, after gas was made available by GAIL (India) Limited.  According to a statement released by the Delhi government’s power department, ‘The union power minister carried out inspection of project site of Maharanibagh-Ghazipur 220Kv line’. Delhi government’s additional secretary, principal secretary and CMD of PGCIL and other several other officers of power sector accompanied the union minister. 

Delhi government’s principal power secretary assured the minister that the project will be completed as per the target. The above inspection has salutary effect on the progress of other project sites such as Shalimar Bagh-Wazirpur, Badarpur-Noida-Ghazipur, 220 KV Maharanibagh -Trauma centre line, which were damaged on 30 May by the thunderstorm.

Discoms have also been directed to restrict load shedding to one hour at best on rotational basis. ‘All discoms will ensure through surprise inspections that their complaint centers are operational on 24/7 basis. They have also been directed to immediately replace all vulnerable or faulty lines,’ a senior IAS officer said. The officer also stated that work has started at ten places, where transmission lines were damaged due to the dust storm. 

The minister’s directions came after people rushed out onto the streets to protest against frequent power cuts during scorching summer heat, with temperatures in Delhi reaching a 62-year high. The minister had asked the Delhi administration on Tuesday to speed-up the restoration work of power plants and other damaged lines by forming Special Task Force, which will take upon various projects on a priority basis.