India Assures of Reviewing Gas Price For Northeast

Agartala, Aug 28 : The Centre has assured the Northeastern states of reviewing the latest price hike of natural gas, Tripura Power Minister Manik Dey said today.

Talking to mediapersons here, Mr Dey said a four-member delegation of Northeastern Regional Power Committee (NERPC), comprising power ministers of Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Assam, met both Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora and Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on August 25 last.

He said almost 48 per cent of power was generated from natural gas in the Northeast, but suddenly the Petroleum Ministry hiked the price of natural gas from Rs 2,112 per cubic metre to Rs 5,152.

The hike in the price adversely affected both power generation and industrial development in the region, he charged.

The delegation had demanded roll back of the hike in prices of natural gas in the region to stabilize the prices of power, Mr Dey said and added that both the Union Ministers were positive to the demand.

''Northeast is sharing its power generation with the rest of the country as per agreement with the Centre, but other parts of the country do not consider to share their power with the Northeastern states and that is why we pressed for the demand of sharing power from upcoming mega-power project of Orissa,'' Mr Dey underlined.

Mr Shinde, however, asserted that the Power Ministry was sincerely trying to bring up four mega-power projects of the Northeast-- gas-based 726 MW plant in Palatana, coal-based 750 MW thermal power plant in Boangaigoan, 600 MW and 2,000 MW hydro-power plants in Subarnasiri and Kameng respectively-- as soon as possible to manage the deficiency in peak hour.

The delegation also demanded the Centre to incorporate Sikkim in the NERPC, timely commissioning of hydro and thermal projects in the region and upgrade transmission infrastructure for economic development.