February 3, 2000

Minister of State for Power Smt. Jayawanti Mehta led a team of power sector professionals and developers to USA to attend conferences in Washington DC on January 25 and New York on January 26, on the theme “Investment Opportunities in Transmission and Distribution with advantages of Convergence”. The Minister also met the Managing Director and senior officials of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation to discuss the support of these institutions for the power sector in India. The Minister emphasized the full commitment of the Government of India to support and carry forward the reform process. This was evidenced by the strong handling of the power strike in Uttar Pradesh. The Government is looking forward for expanding investments in the hydel sector to correct the hydel thermal imbalance. She also called for a hydel initiative by the World Bank in India’s power sector. The need for continuing Bank support to NTPC, Powergrid was also underlined.

The Managing Director of the Bank assured full support of his organisation to the reform efforts in Indian power sector. The Conferences organized in Washington DC and New York attracted considerable interest on the increasing opportunities in India’s transmission and distribution network. Since Powergrid has announced its plan for associating with private sector companies for undertaking investments in telecommunication sector using the right of way available with the PGCIL, considerable scope exists for increasing revenues and achieving synergy in terms of investment and technology. Government of India is also committed to developing a more competitive power sector in India. The regulatory mechanism is already in place for attracting private investments into India’s power sector. The Conference recognized that the experience of USA in convergence and competitive power markets could be usefully considered while taking similar initiative in India’s Power Sector.