BILT to light up Pawar's home turf

MUMBAI: Ballarpur Industries (BILT), India���s largest writing and printing paper manufacturer, is all set to light up Sharad Pawar���s home town Baramati. The company���s unit, near the union agriculture minister���s home town, will divert its additional capacity to Baramati in order to mitigate the load shedding.

Originally commissioned by Indonesia-based Sinar Mas Group, the paper unit was taken over by BILT in 2001. Located at village Paundhwadi and situated in MIDC Industrial area, it has around 40 mw coal-based plant from where it will make 6 mw available for Baramati.

As reported by ET on Tuesday, Baramati Vyapari Mahasangh has submitted a proposal to Maha Vitaran, the distribution arm of the state power utility, to buy power from available sources to end load shedding.

���The body has reached an understanding with BILT to use the company���s additional electricity capacity. We have no objection so far as we get our charges,��� a Maha Vitaran official said. The power sector regulator MERC last week conducted a public hearing on the issue and will soon clear the proposal, sources say.

In fact, it���s the Maha Vitaran���s policy to encourage people to come forward and tap sources in order to get rid of the load shedding. ���We have no problem. We, in fact, welcome such moves as we can use the available supply for other areas,��� a Maha Vitaran official said.

The first experiment of this kind took off in Pune last year where a local business body along with CII took an initiative to free the city of load shedding. They tied up with engineering companies around Pune having their own captive generators. These companies now supply their surplus power to the city that is now freed of load shedding.

Reeling under severe power shortage, which may go up to 5,000 mw in peak summer, the state had to resort to forced power cuts to meet the demand. Cities, excluding Mumbai, face upto three hours of load shedding. In rural areas, this goes up to six hours and more every day.