Amritsar, May 19: For the paddy season starting from June 1 in Punjab, farmers will be provided at least eight hours of uninterrupted electricity. For this, the entire state has been divided into three zones. According to this, paddy sowing will start in the districts.
This information has been given by Punjab’s Power Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO. Our thermal plants have coal for thirty days. All five thermal plants are working. Apart from this, we have also done power banking. If needed, it will be taken from other states as well. At the same time, the work of planting paddy with DSR technology has started.
The entire Punjab has been divided into three electricity zones, which are as follows:
Zone 1 – Faridkot, Ferozepur, Bathinda, Sri Muktsar Sahib and Fazilka. Paddy planting work will begin from June 1. Here, electricity supply will be available for eight hours per day until the crop ripens.
Zone 2 – Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Rupnagar, Mohali, Hoshiarpur and Fatehgarh Sahib. These are included in zone 2. Paddy sowing will start here from June 5.
Zone 3 – Paddy sowing will start in Ludhiana, Malerkotla, Mansa, Moga, Patiala, Barnala, Sangrur, Jalandhar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar from June 9.
This strategy has been made to deal with the power crisis.
80 lakh acres of paddy have to be sown. There is no shortage of power supply. Fourteen out of 15 units of five thermal plants are working. One unit of the Goindwal thermal plant is closed. Its maintenance is going on. It will also be made within a day or two.
There is a lot of coal available. There is coal for more than 30 days. The transmission capacity is 10,100 MW. It will be increased to 10,500 MW by June. During the paddy season, backing was done from other states, which will be taken back from those states. Last year, the demand for electricity was 16,59 MW. This time, there will be a demand of 17,000 MW. All arrangements have been made for that.