Hyderabad: The Centre has agreed to allot additional wagons for supply of coal through NTPC dedicated lines to AP to generate 500 MW of additional power in the next two months. This was stated by AP Chief Minister, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, after a meeting with Union power minister Piyush Goel in Delhi on Thursday.
Mr Goel also assured Mr Naidu to favourably consider declaring AP as a pilot project to supply quality power to both industries and houses 24X7. The AP chief minister, along with ministers and MPs, had a series of meetings with several Union ministers with various demands and got favourable assurances on all.
Speaking to the media later, Mr Goel, however, said that the contentious issues regarding the power sector should be resolved by the Telan-gana and AP governments and the Centre would extend all help to tide over the crisis being faced by both the states.
Mr Naidu also met Union finance minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, and requested for Rs 7,000 crore from the Central budget to meet expenditures for the Polavaram multi-purpose dam. He also sought funds for construction of the new capital city besides special grants to tide over the financial crisis created on account of division of the state.
He requested the finance minister to allot Rs 15,600 crore for bridging the budget gap of AP.
Mr Naidu later met Union urban affairs minister, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, and sought his assistance for taking up Metro Rail projects in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, besides funds for the new capital.
Mr Venkaiah Naidu, however, told Mr Naidu that the Centre would come into the picture once the AP government decided on the location of the capital city and submission of the Sivaramakrishnan Committee report. He also made it clear that the AP government should take steps to expedite the process and move to the new capital as it cannot depend on Hyderabad as the common capital city.
The AP chief minister also met Union Water Resource Minister, Ms Uma Bharathi, Union Home Minister, Mr Rajnath Singh, Petroleum Minister, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, HRD Minister, Ms Smriti Irani and submitted memorandums on various issues concerning the state. Later in the evening, Mr Naidu and his team met Union Railway Minister, Mr Sadanand Gowda, and sought more help for AP in the ensuing Railway Budget.
