Union minister of state for commerce and power Jairam Ramesh (right) with DVC chairman A.K. Burman at Chandrapura. Picture by Pankaj Singh

Bokaro, July 29: In a bid to apparently please JMM chief Shibu Soren for the support to the UPA in Parliament, Union minister of state for commerce and power Jairam Ramesh today announced to open a new regional office of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) on the HEC campus in Ranchi.

The regional office would monitor all the DVC projects, including the new ones, in Jharkhand. will become operational by early 2009, the minister told reporters at Chandrapura, about 40km from here.

The minister today inspected the upcoming power plant project, which is already running 18 months behind schedule, at Chandrapura.

Ramesh announced that the new 250MW unit of Chandrapura Thermal Power Station (CTPS) would become functional by February 2009. The second one of the same capacity would be operational by next April.

Presenting a rosy picture for Jharkhand in the field of power generation, Ramesh said announced that within four years the state would be generating 3,700MW of electricity. The new projects coming up at Koderma, Maithon (joint project with Tata), Bokaro (joint project of Bokaro steel and DVC) and Chandrapura would help generate the additional power, he said.

Taking a dig at local politicians, the minister stated that the workers of the plant had put only 12 days of work since June and went on strike time and again due to selfish attitude of local politicians. These have hampered works in several plants, including upcoming DVC project at Koderma, Kahalgaon (Bihar) and Chhattisgarh.

Giving a pat to the labourers of Jharkhand, the Union minister stated that undoubtedly they were hard workers and a dedicated lot. But in present times skilled labourers of developed states were having an edge over the unskilled ones, he added.

Taking this into consideration, the minister announced, the DVC has agreed to establish two new ITIs — one at Chandrapura, for which foundation stone was laid today, and another at Koderma — in the state.

After thanking the JMM and its leaders for supporting UPA in Parliament on the nuclear deal, the Union minister said it would be beneficial for the country in all respects.

The nuclear power plant of Tamil Nadu is producing only 45 per cent of its capacity of about 4,000MW due to shortage of uranium.

Ramesh added that Jharkhand was the highest producer (45 per cent) of uranium in the country, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya, but the supply was quite less than the demand.

Once the nuclear deal is finalised, India would be importing uranium and heavy water from Russia, France, Australia and even Canada, he said.