Gujarat has got the largest financial assistance from the Centre for setting up power grids and capacity expansion, according to Union Minister of State for Power Bharatsinh Solanki.

Addressing the media in Ahmedabad on Thursday, Solanki said the state has received an assistance of over Rs 35,000 crore. This, he said, is in the form of assistance provided by the Power Finance Corporation (Rs 17,585 crore), Rural Electricity Company (Rs 13,078 crore) and Power Grid Corporation (Rs 4,000 crore).

Moreover, he said, the Centre has provided Rs 1,000 crore to the Gujarat government to bring down the transmission losses under the accelerated power development and reforms programme (APDRP). The central power Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) are also betting big on Gujarat, with most of them set to pump in huge amounts in the sector in the coming years. This includes NTPC, Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd (NLC) and Nuclear Power Corporation of India among others.

NTPC, the largest thermal power generating company in the country, has plans to set up two 300 MW solar power plants in Kutch and Banaskantha. NTPC will sign a memorandum of understanding in this regard with the state for the solar power generation.

Also, NLC is planning to set up a lignite-based power plant in the state. This plant will have a capacity of 1,000 MW on a 74:26 ratio between the NLC and the state. Apart from this, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India plans to set up six atomic power generation plants of 1,000 MW capacity each.

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