First get power,then call big players,experts to Nitish

Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla wondered how a state like Bihar could attract heavy industries with such dismal power situation.

“Heavy industries are not coming to Bihar purely for this reason. It will be a nice idea for Nitish Kumar to get investments in power sectors first before attracting big industry players,” said Birla.

He suggested that Bihar,which is far behind the national average in per capita power consumption of 700 MW,should explore ways to secure natural gas supply through HPJ gas pipeline through KG Basin. He added that Bihar should,for now,concentrate on attracting small and medium industries.

Bihar,which requires 2,500 MW of power,has sanctioned allocation of only 1,700 MW. Of which,it seldom gets more than 700-800 MW. In next four-five years,Bihar is unlikely to get more than 700 MW additional power from its share of one NTPC Barh unit and Navinagar power plant in Aurangabad due to be completed by 2015.

Though State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) and Bihar government have approved 611 investment proposals worth about Rs 2 lakh crore,the state has been able to realise investment worth over only Rs 7,000 crore,mostly in food processing,education and medical sectors.

Bihar’s CM Kumar,who earlier said that land acquisition had been a hurdle for investment,has now changed his stance,probably after facing a barrage of questions on state not inviting any major investment in last six years despite all the image-building exercise.

Kumar said,“Land is not at all a problem. We have now been encouraging farmers to part with their land. As for electricity,we need time and also cooperation from Centre to get our allocated share and also avail more coal linkages for future thermal power projects”.