Patna, Sept. 18: Bihar today requested the Centre to direct the NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation) to run the thermal power plant at Barauni in Begusarai district.

The request was made during a meeting with Raj Kumar Singh, Union minister of state (independent charge) for power and new & renewable energy, today in which state energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, energy department principal secretary Pratyaya Amrit and senior officials of NTPC and Rural Electrification Corporation were also present.

The state argued that the NTPC had expertise in running thermal power plants and also it would be easier for it to get regular supply of coal as it purchases coal in bulk for its units which economises the input cost as well.

Minister Singh said the Union ministry would draft a team to explore the viability of Bihar's request, a senior state government official who was present in the meeting told The Telegraph.

The state government had decided to renovate Barauni thermal power unit in 2007-08.

It has spent around Rs 600 crore for renovating the two 110MW units at Barauni and also invested around Rs 5,500 crore for setting up two 250MW power units there. One of the two 110MW units that was made operational in February this year has run into glitches.

During the meeting, Singh emphasised on the use of prepaid meters for pre-empting energy theft and delay in bill collection and said such meters would reduce the load of distribution companies.

During the hour-long meeting Bihar officials raised the issue of funds for the roughly 200 remote villages in the state where electrification through regular means is not possible and power has to be provided through solar energy.

The Union minister told the state officials that the Centre would release the funds for those villages soon.