BRS leader T. Harish Rao speaking on the State government’s plans to go for three new thermal power plants overlooking cheaper alternatives in Hyderabad on Monday.
| Photo Credit: By Arrangement
HYDERABAD
Former minister and senior leader of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) T. Harish Rao accused the Congress government in the State of burdening people with ₹82,000 crore in additional electricity costs over 25 years, all to make easy money in the form of commissions on new thermal power projects.
He criticised Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Minister for Industries D. Sridhar Babu for defending the government’s thermal plants’ plans despite clear and cheaper alternatives offered by the NTPC. He stated that NTPC was offering energy at ₹4.12 per unit but the State government was rejecting it and opting for the State-run Genco plants, whose energy supply cost was ₹7.70 per unit.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said the decision to proceed with three thermal plants of 800 megawatt each at Ramagundam, Makthal and Palvancha without considering NTPC’s offer showed clear intent to make commissions from the inflated costs.
“Each megawatt of power generation facility establishment will cost ₹13.62 crore and it will in all probability rises to ₹15–16 crore by the time of completion”, he said and added that daily production of 3 crore units would cost ₹9 crore more than NTPC power, translating to ₹3,285 crore annually and ₹82,000 crore over 25 years, he explained.
Mr. Harish Rao sought to know why the government was ignoring NTPC’s repeated written requests and direct appeals by its CMD to purchase the entire 2,400 MW (3×800 MW) power from its Telangana-dedicated plant. “Why prefer a 5-year construction timeline over NTPC’s ready supply? Is it because there are no commissions from NTPC?” he asked.
He pointed out contradictions between the government’s earlier promises and present actions. Functionaries of the government spoke of green energy in the Assembly, but they were talking about building thermal plants now. The Clean and Energy Policy targeted 20,000 MW of renewable power generation capacity by 2030, he stated.
Slamming the Congress government for appointing non-local and Andhra-region officials in key positions in the power sector, sidelining the experienced Telangana officers, the BRS leaders said Genco’s new Director (Projects) was an Andhra engineer with no power sector experience. Former Singareni officials and even those with ACB trapping histories were handled critical roles, he said.
He alleged deep-rooted corruption in the Green Energy application process as well. The department collected ₹600 crore from applicants, then demanded ₹30 lakh per MW as ‘goodwill’. No permissions were being given till that amount was paid, he alleged.
Published – December 01, 2025 09:39 pm IST
