THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government will have to go for a hike in the power tariffs, Electricity Minister M M Mani said on Tuesday. Addressing a press conference here, Mani said the Kerala State Electricity Board’s (KSEB) debts amount to Rs 7,300 crore. There is no other option but go for a hike. The government, however, has not arrived at any decision in this regard, he said. Power tariffs in the state were last hiked on December 7, 2016. On the controversial Athirapally hydel project, he said he was all for the project, but the 163 MW initiative did not stand a chance at present due to the massive opposition.
‘’My party and I want to implement the project. If everyone agrees, we can implement it. The project has obtained all clearances from the centre,’’ he said. On the objections raised by the CPI and the Congress against the project, he said every party was entitled to its stand. “Just because the CPM wants to implement the project, can we unilaterally implement it in a democratic scenario?’’ Mani asked.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will officially declare the projects KSEB plans to implement in the next three years at the Tagore Theatre on Thursday. They include ‘Dyuti 2021,’ a Rs 4,000 crore project for improving the distribution network, and an ambitious initiative to replace CFLs, tubes and incandescent bulbs in streetlights and homes with LEDs.
Monsoon havoc: E 12-cr ‘shock’ for KSEB
KSEB has pegged the damage caused by the Southwest monsoon in the past few days at a whopping Rs 12 crore. The lashing rain and winds brought down 6,000 electric poles across the state, Electricity Minister M M Mani said. The resultant outage left three lakh consumers without supply, he said. Supply was expected to be fully restored by Tuesday. ‘’The power sector sustained heavy losses in the last few days due to the monsoon havoc,” he said. “A preliminary assessment has pegged the total loss at roughly D12 crore. The problems in the 11 KV network have been largely addressed,’’ he said.