Some of the states in the northern region face substantial shortage during peak hours and the energy demand cannot be met through internal sources. Kumaramangalam said that the import of power from neighbouring countries was being explored to meet the deficit in the northern region partly.

``The government of Pakistan confirmed availability of 300 MW of power, which can be supplied to India in the next ten years, which can be augmented upto 600 MW during a certain period of the year, depending on technical limits of the system on either side,'' the Minister said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

In May 1997, the Pakistani government, through its High Commission here, had expressed interest in the export of electricity to India and it was subsequently discussed during secretary-level meetings.

The country shouldachieve the target of adding 40,000 MW of power to the national grid during the Ninth Plan period, the Power Minister told the Rajya Sabha today. Answering questions, the Minister said that he was not just depending on private generation, but also on various public sector projects that were at various stages of power production.

He said the Government had eased many restrictions. ``All Independent Power Producers (IPP) with an investment up to Rs 5,000 crore need not come for Central clearance. If you have to come to the Centre, the Central electric authority, will give its nod in three months time, provided it was submitted with all data and information,''he clarified.

The Minister said that the states were free to sign MOUs with the IPP after counter-guarantees were signed by the Centre. As many as 48 power projects had been cleared.

Asked if the power tariff would come down like it had in Europe, Kumaramangalam said that such a scenario had taken place there because of deregulation and competitionamong power-generating companies. Even after the Centre signed the counter-guarantee, the State Governments were free to renegotiate and bring down the prices in their best interests. The power tariff in India was still low, because it was the Public Sector which still did the job of generation and supply of power, he added.

Kumaramangalam said environmental clearance would certainly take not less than one year, because, due to stringent environmental regulations in the country, the authorities would have observe four seasons before clearing a project. On delay in giving clearances to cogentrix power project, the Minister said the Government was awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court.