Jun 19, 2006, 12:59 GMT
Raipur, June 19 (IANS) The central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, known as the country's rice bowl, will generate 300 MW of power from paddy husk by the end of 2007, official sources said Monday.
'The state currently produces 1,405 MW of power, including 1,280 MW of thermal and 125 MW of hydropower. It will be able to generate 300 MW with eight paddy husk-based plants to be completed during next 18 months,' said a top official in the Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA).
Most of the plants are coming up in the four leading paddy-producing districts of Raipur, Bilaspur, Dhamtari and Durg. The plants will rely mainly on the 1,000-odd rice mills that will release paddy husk during the milling process.
CREDA has been holding discussions with over a dozen private firms to encourage the setting up husk based power plants with technical assistance and free guidance.
Despite being hit by drought for the third consecutive year, Chhattisgarh procured a record 3.34 million tonnes of paddy on support prices from farmers between Oct 25, 2005 and Jan 31, 2006, across 16 districts and paid Rs.19.58 billion to farmers.
'Dozens of companies are keen to set up husk-based plants for power generation to tap the state's vast potential in the field of paddy production and the government would be shortlisting the serious players before firming up the deal,' the official said.
Last week, Chief Minister Raman Singh laid the foundation stone for the construction of a paddy husk-based 10 MW capacity private sector power plant at Surajpur in Surguja district.
© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service
Your Talkback on this Story