Union Minister of State (IC) for Power,
Coal, New & Renewable energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal, addressed the
media on achievements of Ministries under his charge in the last three years,
here today. Shri Goyal also interacted with the media present at 7 cities –
Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow and Patna -
through video conferencing.
Shri Goyal informed that achieving the
Mission of 24×7 Affordable Clean ‘Power for All’ and ensuring the optimum utilization of natural resources
for national development are very critical to ‘Ujwal
Bharat’ which will help in realizing Prime Minister of
India, Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of New India. Over the past three years, the Ministries of Power, Coal, New
& renewable energy and Mines have made considerable progress towards
achieving this goal.
The Minister talked about how the four
Ministries have worked on 6 fundamental principles to achieve the goal
of Ujwal Bharat. These are SULABH (Accesible Power), SASTI (Cheap
Power), SWACHH (Clean Power), SUNIYOJIT (Well Planned
Infrastructure; Preparing India for the Future), SUNISHCHIT (Assured
Power for All) and SURAKSHIT (Empowering each Citizen of India with
Transparent Governance and Securing their Future).
Shri Goyal laid eMphasis that all the
stakeholders concerned with the four sectors, viz., Union Government, State
Governments, Power sector players (Public and Private), Mining Sector
participants and investors, consumers, citizens etc have to work in
coordination, with the sole aim of SEWA (Service) to each citizen of India.
Detailing out the major achievements of
the four Ministries in brief, Shri Goyal enumerated the following below:
Coal
To ensure adequate coal for
electricity, shortage to surplus, Government has set a goal to
produce 100 crore tonnes of domestic coal by 2019–20. The 9.2 crore tonne increase in
production of coal in the three years since 2014. This
increase took about seven years before 2014. While nearly
two–thirds of the power plants were reeling critical coal
stocks in 2014, there is no shortage of coal now. Through reduced
coal imports to make the nation self–reliant, foreign
exchange worth Rs. 25,900 crores have
been saved.
The principle of “less
coal for more power” has yielded
results. In 2016–17, 0.63
kgs of coal was used to produce 1 kWh of electricity (specific
coal consumption), versus 0.69 kgs in
2013–2014, a reduction of 8%. This
ensures cheaper as well as cleaner electricity. Further, coal
linkage rationalization of 4 crore tonnes of coal will
result in potential savings of about Rs. 3,000 crores.
Power
All States have
signed the ‘Power for All’ agreements
highlighting Government’s commitment to the principle of
Cooperative Federalism. SHAKTI (Scheme
for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala Transparently in India) is a transformational policy for auction and allotment of coal
linkages and will lead to affordable power, access to coal and accountability
in the allocation of coal. The Mega Power Policy
will facilitate competitive bidding for future Power Purchase Agreements and
ensure long term project viability.
The highest ever 60GW addition in
conventional power, about 40% increase in
transformation capacity, and over one–fourth increase in transmission
lines since April 2014–March 2017, have made India a power
surplus country, with no shortage of electricity or coal. ‘One
Nation, One Grid, One Price’ was
further strengthened with surplus electricity available at affordable rates for
States. For the first time, India became a net exporter
of electricity in 2016–17.
UDAY (Ujwal
DISCOM Assurance Yojana), as a
comprehensive reform of the distribution sector saw progress, with savings of
nearly Rs. 12,000 crores for DISCOMs due to issuance of
UDAY Bonds worth Rs. 2.32 lakh crore. These savings will help in providing affordable power to
consumers. Through reforms, India’s
ranking in ‘Ease of Getting Electricity’ by the World Bank rose from 99 in 2015 to 26 in 2017.
Government is driven by ‘Antyodaya’ – serving
the last man at the bottom of the pyramid, based on the philosophy of Pandit
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. The birth centenary year of this
great philosopher, humanist and nationalist is being commemorated as Garib Kalyan
Varsh. The flagship scheme for rural electrification (DDUGJY – Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti
Yojana) has received special attention. Less
than 4,000 of the 18,452 remaining un–electrified villages
(as of 1st April 2015) remain, and
will be electrified by May 2018. To ensure light in not
just every village but every home, the Government has set the target of
electrifying every household by 2022. About 4.5 crore rural households remain, as per data submitted by the
States.
India has received world recognition for
its energy efficiency initiatives. More than 23
crore LED bulbs have been distributed under UJALA (Unnat
Jyoti by Affordable Electricity for All), and this has
served a twofold purpose – helped save Rs. 12,400
crores in electricity bills, and reduced CO2 emissions by over 2.5 crore tonnes annually.
New & Renewable Energy
As declared emphatically by the Prime
Minister of India remains fully committed to protecting the environment, which
is an Article of Faith for us. In 2016–17,
India crossed major milestones in the mission of achieving 175 GW of renewable
power by 2022. By introducing competitive bidding,
Government has ensured that renewable energy is affordable and attractive for
consumers. 2016–17 saw the lowest
tariffs in both solar (Rs. 2.44) and wind (Rs. 3.46) energy. In a groundbreaking development, 2016–17
also marks the first year when net capacity addition of renewable energy was
higher than that conventional energy. The past year also
saw the highest ever addition of solar and Wind Power.
Mining
Through a combination of sound policy
and technology, the Government has embarked on a plan to bring transparency to
the mining sector and optimize utilization of natural
resources. The National Mineral Exploration Policy 2016
aims to accelerate exploration through National Aero–Geophysical
Mapping Project, which will acquire data on 27 lakh line kms of aero–geophysical data by 2019, versus 7 lakh line kms in the last 30
years. Amending the legislative framework for allotment of
offshore blocks will kick start offshore mining activity. Transparent auction of 24 mineral blocks will lead to
estimated revenue of over Rs. 1 lakh crore to
the States over the lease period of the mines. Using space
Technology, the Mining surveillance System (MSS) acts as an eye in the sky to check Illegal Mining.
To ensure that people affected by mining
benefit from this activity, Government has started Pradhan Mantri Khanij
Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY),
which has already covered 11 out of 12 mineral–rich states. The District Mineral Foundation (DMF) under PMKKKY has collected about Rs. 7,150 crores from mining in 2016–17,
which will be used for education, healthcare and welfare measures specifically
for mining affected people and areas.
Accountability and Transparency
through mobile apps
Government is also operating under the
highest standards of transparency and accountability, with ‘consumer
is king’, at the heart of all efforts. The
launch of various apps to track the functioning of various departments and
schemes is part of this. Some of the apps launched in the
past year include URJA to track electricity situation in urban areas and the
progress of the Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), TARANG to track transmission projects and URJA MITRA for
power cut information. All the apps of the four Ministries
can be downloaded by giving a missed call number to 18002003004.
Other dignitaries present on the
occasion were Shri P.K. Pujari, Secretary Power, Shri Susheel Kumar, Secretary
Coal, Shri Arun Kumar, Secretary, Mines and other senior officers of the four
Ministries and PSUs under them.
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RM/VM
