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Govt planning gas-based power plant in state: CM

NT Staff Reporter
Panaji, Feb 20 The Chief Minister, Mr Pratapsingh Rane has said that the government was thinking of setting up a gas-based power plant, and that it has asked Crystal Consultants, a government of India undertaking, to submit a report after studying the economics of bringing gas and setting up the plant.

In an exclusive interview with ‘The Navhind Times’ today, Mr Rane said that a private company has found huge quantities of gas, which could be purchased by the state government to meet its requirement of power generation.

“We want non-polluting power plant and we are moving in the direction to set up a gas based power generating facility, which would be pollution free,” he said. In reply to a question on setting up coal-based plant he said that it was not a good idea in the state as that would lead to pollution.

Replying to another question on meeting the power requirements of the state, he said: “We are not a power generating state, we get power from the neighbouring states. We are trying to negotiate with the power companies on setting up power plants in the neighbouring states for about 150 MW to meet our requirements for the next 3-4 years.”

The Chief Minister also said that Goa required broad roads and the government could construct these roads, he added. He said that the number of vehicles has risen manifold in the state and narrow roads cannot take the load as such there was need for broader roads, which would help to prevent accidents.

“We need to have a superhighway with atleast six lanes from North to South and one more from Mormugao port to hinterland. These two highways would solve lot of congestion problems on the state roads,” he said further.

As regards to tackling the issue of encroachments by the roadside, he said that there should be proper setbacks on the new highways and the authorities should not allow any encroach-ments on them. “We would use modern technology to find out any encroachment and the officers would have to ensure that they were removed,” he added.

The Chief Minister further said that waste disposal was a big and pressing problem in the state and everybody (people as well as politicians) has to join hands to tackle this problem at earliest.

“We need to set up two waste treatment plants (one in North and the other in South) or a single one that is centrally located, he said adding that modern day technology in this field was quite efficient and we have asked the consultants to give us feasibility report.

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