Chief minister Nitish Kumar and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav (extreme right) at the grid sub-station in Madhepura on Thursday. Telegraph picture

People in the Kosi region would soon get an additional 150MW of power as the transmission capacity has been strengthened with chief minister Nitish Kumar inaugurating a grid sub-station in Madhepura on Thursday.

The 220/132/33KV grid sub-station in Singheshwar is the 84th such establishment in the state. It would help the Bihar State Power Transmission Company Ltd in supplying additional 150MW to the Kosi region if the power generation is up to the mark. The area includes the districts of Madhepura, Saharsa and Supaul.

Nitish, who has promised to provide power to all by the 2015 Assembly elections, dedicated the grid sub station to the people. With a capacity of 240MVA, the establishment in Madhepura, around 240km northeast of Patna, will be connected to the Power Grid Corporation of India’s 400/220 KV grid in Purnea that draws power allocated under the central sector from Kahalgaon, Farakka (Bengal) and Bhutan.

The chief minister also laid the foundation stone of a government medical college and hospital during his Seva Yatra in Madhepura. A 500-bed medical college and hospital would be built at an estimated cost of Rs 881 crore where 100 students would be enrolled every year for MBBS course.

Bihar State Power (Holding) Company deputy general manager H.R. Pandey said the two grids would be connected through double circuit 101km-long transmission line. From Madhepura, the grid will again be connected to the under-construction grid at Sonbarsa and two functioning grids in Supaul and Saharsa.

The grid sub station has been constructed at a cost of Rs 99 crore under Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana.

It is a part of the power transmission company’s detailed plan to strengthen the state’s transmission network for fulfilling the chief minister’s announcement on last Independence Day of providing power to all. The transmission company, in a joint venture firm with the Power Grid Corporation of India, has geared up to create and strengthen the transmission infrastructure in the state, including the construction of 19 more grid sub stations, laying of transmission lines and augmenting the capacity of the existing grids, to supply 5,660MW by the end of Twelfth Five-Year Plan.

The power demand is based on an assessment conducted by the Central Electricity Authority. Focusing on the strengthening of the transmission and distribution network, the government has assessed it would get around 4,000MW power by the end of 2015.

The joint venture firm would spend around Rs 6,000 crore in three phases to strengthen the transmission network to attain its target of transmitting 4,000MW by the end of the first phase to be complete by the end of next fiscal.

JD(U) president and local MP Sharad Yadav, energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, law minister Narendra Narayan Yadav, energy secretary Sandeep Pondrik, North Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd MD Sanjay Kumar Agrawal were present.