Deepanjalinagar (Visakhapatnam DT.) – The Union Power Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, who was here to lay the foundation for stage II of NTPC Simhadri Super Thermal Power Project involving an investment of Rs.5,038 crore, on Sunday promised that ‘power will be made available to all in the country by 2012’.

The gathering presided by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and welcomed by the NTPC Chairman and Managing Director T. Sankaralingam was attended by the Union Minister of State for Mines T. Subbarami Reddy, State Ministers Mohd. Ali Shabbir (Power), Konathala Ramakrishna (Commercial taxes), Kanna Lakshminarayana (Transport), MPs V. Hanumantha Rao, P. Chalapathi Rao, and Parawada MLA Gandi Babji.

The Union Power Minister told that the Centre was according thrust to capacity addition besides creating more inter-regional transmission capacity and giving a major push to rural electrification.

On the National Electricity Policy, the minister said that under the 11th Five Year Plan, the Centre had envisaged making power available to all in the next 5 years and creating a reserve of 5 per cent.

Expressing regrets regarding access to power in rural and interior areas, the minister told that the government was trying to increase the per capita availability to 1,000 units from around 600 units at present and provide a minimum lifeline consumption of one unit per household, per day.

The Minister said, “With the changing targets, the power sector hopes its performance will match, or perhaps even excel those of other sectors of the economy.”

Stating that power availability would increase labour and agricultural productivity, the Minister said that the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutkaran Yojana was an initiative of the Centre to increase the reach.