Hyderabad: On Sunday at midnight, as the world celebrates and ushers in the new year, there will be a celebration in thousands of villages across Telangana — just not for the same reasons as people across the world.
An old dream of Telangana farmers will become a reality on January 1 as round-the-clock power supply to all 2.3 million agricultural pump sets is set to begin.
After the success of two rounds of trial runs this year, the Telangana government is all set to start the uninterrupted and quality power supply to the farmers. “This is our New Year gift to the farmers”, said Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. With this Telangana will be the first state in the country to supply free power to farmers around the clock. A few other states have been supplying free power, but not round the clock.
Telangana State Power Generation Corporation and Transco CMD D Prabhakar Rao, after reviewing the preparations with the other top officials of power organisations, said the 24-hour power supply will result in a gradual increase in demand, and it will reach 11000MW by the month of March.
He also discussed about the load bearing due to the 24-hour supply and the strategy to be adapted when there is more load.
As the pump houses of the Lift Irrigation Schemes will also start functioning from June there will be more demand for power. A strategy will be evolved to meet the overall demand of power, he said.
Until the formation of Telangana state power supply to the farming sector was erratic, but after the formation it was increased to nine hours a day.
