West Bengal to sell power to other states after 2 years: Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said her state has surplus power and will sell it to other states after two years.

" NTPC is setting up a power unit at Katwa. Four hydel projects are coming up in north Bengal. A project has started at Raghunathpur," she said at a programme here.

She noted that West Bengal was enjoying an uninterrupted power supply and was in a position to provide power on demand.

"Loadsheddings have stopped (in the state). There are power cuts due to other reasons, we will resolve those issues", she said.

In September this year, the state government formally handed over four new power projects to National Hydro electric Power Corporation ( NHPC) hoping that completion of electricity generation schemes from them will benefit north Bengal districts.

While the three power projects would be on Teesta, the fourth one would be on Darjeeling's Rambaan area.

NTPC's upcoming power plant with a capacity to generate 1320 MW is coming up at Katwa in Burdwan district.

The state government has provided 100 acres of land from the land bank. Similarly, land had been made available for DVC's 1,200 MW plant at Raghunathpur in Purulia district.

Banerjee was speaking at the inauguration of a water supply plant Jai Hind, named after the famous slogan by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, at Dhapa in the eastern fringe of the city.

The plant of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation will provide residents on Eastern Metroplitan Bypass with 30 million gallons of water every day, the city Mayor Sovan Chatterjee told PTI.

The construction work of the Rs 400-crore project started in 2008.

"We have not imposed any tax on water. Water is life. In the next 15-20 days people living around EM Bypass will get water supply" Banerjee said.