HYDERABAD: The Pulichintala hydro power plant will become fully operational in October this year and will generate 120 MW of electricity. The Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TS Genco) is set to complete construction of the plant in a record time of two years.With Pulichintala generating 120 MW (4X30MW), the total hydel generation in the state will be 2,442 MW.
Genco chairman and managing director D Prabhakar Rao visited the project on Friday along with senior officials. He inspected the works which reached the finishing stage. He performed puja for installation of the runner for the third unit.According to officials, one unit with a production capacity of 30 MW is ready and another 30 MW unit is nearing completion. By the end of August, the third unit will be ready and the fourth unit by the end of October.
The water level at Pulichintala has reached 32 metres and Prabhakar Rao asked the officials to start power generation when the water level reaches 42.6 metres.
Though, the hydro-electric plant was planned on Krishna river at Pulichintala by the government of the combined AP state in 2006, the actual work on the plant began after Telangana state was formed. With instructions from chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, a new detailed project report (DPR) was prepared with revised estimates of ` 563 crore. The works commenced in 2015.
TS Genco also plans to set up solar power plants at Pulichintala. They will come up on a sprawling 90-acre land on the banks of the river. Prabhakar Rao also visited that site. He said that seven solar power plants would be set up at the site and tenders were invited. “Of the total target of generating 5,000 MW of solar power in the state, 2,000 MW of solar power is already being generated and plants for production of another 3,000 MW of solar power will be commissioned in the next two years,” Prabhakar Rao said.
The total power generation _ thermal, solar, hydel _ in the state will reach 28,000 MW of power soon.