Patna,(BiharTimes): Power miniter Bijendra Yadav on Thursday reiterated that the state would become self-sufficent in electricity sector by August 2015.

Replying to the second supplementary demands for grants of various departments in 2013-14 he said with availablity of 5,300 MW the state would become self-sufficient as pledged by chief minister Nitish Kumar in his Independence Day speech in 2012. The chief minister had then said that he would not seek election in October 2015 if he failed in his mission.

The power minister said in the Assembly that the state would ensure availability of power at 5,300 MW by August 2015
through generation and other sources to fulfil the pledge of the chief minister.

Yadav said that the power situation in Bihar has shown improvement since 2005-06 when it had 800 MW available at its disposal out of which only 550 MW was meant for consumers due to commitments to Nepal and railways.

He said there has been significant improvement in power scenario this year with the availability rising to 2,300 MW during the festive season. It would increase to 2,600 MW by August 2014.

The energy minister further said that steps were being taken to strengthen transmission and distribution of infrastructure for which the Centre has proposed to soften the norms for utilization of the MPLAD funds for construction of transmission infrastructure.
The local area development funds of the legislators of Bihar too would be used for laying down transmission network, he added.