Lack of fuel clouds power targets

India aims to add 88,000 MW by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan, of which almost three-fifths of capacity is expected to be built by private companies. But lack of fuel and clearances, and in some cases inadequate finance have forced utilities to revisit their plans.


Several company officials say that even though the capacity addition targets have not been abandoned, its unlikely that these goals would be met. Rachita Prasad lists the plans of some key power generators and the hurdles they need to overcome:

India needs to build capacity fast given that every 1 percentage point increase in GDP requires power capacity to grow by 0.9%...


But existing power units are running below capacity due to lack of fuel, a problem that is plaguing new projects as well...