Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday said it has written a letter to Congress-led UPA government at the Centre for installing a nuclear power plant in the state.

Replying to supplementaries during the question hour, Minister for Power Ramvir Upadhyay told Vidhan Sabha that besides setting up new power plants and modernising the existing ones, the state has also requested the centre to set up a nuclear power plant in the state.

The minister was replying to a supplementary by Congress MLA Pramod Tewari, who wanted to know if those (BSP) opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal had opted for nuclear power.

While giving an account of the various steps undertaken by the state to deal with power shortage, especially in the Bundelkhand region, the minister said Uttar Pradesh has started borrowing electricity from Jharkhand from February 15 and assured the House that in four years time the state would have surplus power.

The minister used the opportunity to lash out at the former BJP government for selling Uchahar and Tanda power houses and the previous Samajwadi Party government for making no effort towards installing new power houses.

The minister said that efforts were also on to strengthen transmission and distribution.