One of the key focus of the Government of Bihar has been infrastructure development. We have seen the government invest in roads, Primary healthcare and education. The government also realizes that power will also play a major role in the development of Bihar and hence has increased focus on power generation projects in Bihar. Thus between 2006 and 2009 power generation projects worth more than 73,000 crores have been approved or are in the various stages of approval. If all these project materialize, then the total power generation capacity of Bihar will have increased by more than 18,000 mega watts. This will definitely go a long way in the development of Bihar.
While SIPB (State Investment Promotion Board) of Bihar has approved or conditionally approved all these projects, the Bihar cabinet is still taking its sweet time to approve the projects.
The Bihar cabinet has only approved 3 projects that will result in a total of 5,440 mega watts of power generation capacity with an investment of 22,779 crores India rupees.
The Bihar cabinet has only approved 3 projects that will result in a total of 5,440 mega watts of power generation capacity with an investment of 22,779 crores India rupees.
As the government of Bihar has itself said that Bihar will need more than 8000 mega watts of power in the in next 5 years, it should speed up the process of making more approvals. The projects that are approved by the cabinet are
Company : Type : Power capacity (MW): Location : Inv (Cr)
JAS Infrastructure Capital Pvt. Ltd. : Thermal : 2640 : Banka : 11120
Adhunik Power & Natural Resources Ltd. : Thermal : 1000 : Kahalgaon, Bhagalpur : 4369.45
M/S Nalanda Power Company Limited : Thermal : 1800 : Pirpainti, Bhagalpur : 7290
On another note, the Bihar government should also focus on giving approvals to green energy projects which will benefit Bihar more in the long run. Thus solar energy projects and Biomass projects should be encouraged. Currently most power projects in Bihar are Thermal/Coal based.
I have extracted a list of power projects in Bihar and am listing the ones with more than 100 MW production capacity.The list of all projects approved from 2006 to July 2009 can also be accessed here : Power Projects Bihar