Patna, March 30: Energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said the new units at Kanti and Barauni thermal plants would start operations by the end of this year, boosting the state’s power production by 400MW.

He was responding to a short-notice question of Binod Narayan Jha of the BJP about the shortfall in power supply in the state. He said the demand was around 2,500MW but the central sector supply varied between 1,000MW and 1,200MW. The minister said the state was purchasing an additional 300MW from the market.

The minister expressed hope that the power situation would improve by the end of this year with new power manufacturing units in Barauni and Kanti becoming operational.

He said in 2015, the state will get over 700MW of power from the market sufficient for the next 25 years. He added that the first phase of Barh super thermal plant was expected to start production next year and the state would be entitled to 260MW of power from there.

He said the construction of the 1,320MW second phase of the same plant will begin next year. “We will be entitled to 50 per cent of the production of the second phase but I do not know when it will be complete,” he said.

The minister also mentioned the thermal plant under construction in Nabinagar, Aurangabad.

“The Centre has not given coal linkage to the expansion plan of the 500MW Barauni thermal plant,” he said. He stressed that the state government was tapping hydro and thermal power and conducting surveys in the basins of all rivers. He said the state will react favourably if a proposal of a nuclear plant came.

Spat over suspension

The suspension of Independent MLA Jyoti Rashmi for the third time in the current session of the Assembly triggered a stand-off between the treasury bench and the Opposition RJD.

The RJD MLAs walked out of the Assembly as the Leader of the Opposition, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, threatened to boycott the session.

However, after a meeting in the speaker’s chamber between the treasury bench and the Opposition, the RJD relented and returned to the House when Jyoti Rashmi refused to apologise inside the House, a condition put by parliamentary affairs minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav for revoking the suspension.