Union cabinet clears Rs. 5111 Crore power system improvement project for North-East.

Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has approved, North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSlP) for six States (Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Nagaland) for strengthening of the Intra State Transmission and Distribution System at an estimated cost of Rs.5111.33 crore including capacity building expenditure of Rs.89 crore.

The scheme is to be taken up under a new Central Sector Plan Scheme of Ministry of Power (MoP). The scheme is to be implemented with the assistance of World Bank loan and the budget of MoP. The project will be funded on 50:50 (World Bank loan: Gol) basis except the component of capacity building for Rs.89 crore for which GoI will bear entirely.

As the Intra-State Transmission and Distribution systems in the North-Eastern States have remained very weak, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) developed a comprehensive scheme for the North East Region (NER) in consultation with the Power Grid Corporation of the India Limited (PGCIL) and State Governments concerned.

ET