The State government has taken steps to obtain 1,950 megawatt more of electricity by June and 600 MW by October, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa told the Assembly on Saturday.

In her reply to the motion to thank Governor for his address to the House, the Chief Minister gave an elaborate account of her government's measures for capacity addition by expediting the execution of several power generation projects.

As for the Vallur thermal power project promoted by the erstwhile Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) and NTPC, she said the first unit of 500 MW would be commissioned by March. Of this, the State's share would be 375 MW. The original deadline for completion was October 2010. The delay happened as the previous Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) regime failed to monitor the execution properly. Another unit should have been commissioned by March 2011. Now, it would be ready by June. One more unit would start generation in February next year.

On the status of the 600-MW additional unit at the North Chennai Thermal Power Station, the Chief Minister said the completion of the work was delayed by seven months as a generator stator, meant for the additional unit, while being transported from the Hardwar unit of the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), fell over a river following the collapse of a bridge.

Another 600 MW of the Mettur Thermal Power Station was to have been commissioned by September last year. It would start generation by March, she said, explaining how the DMK government did not pursue the progress of the execution of projects.

Had the DMK regime implemented the projects mooted during her earlier government, the State would not have faced the problem of power shortage.

For the Vallur thermal power project, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the TNEB and NTPC in July 2002 and for the Tuticorin project, another MOU was entered into between the TNEB and Neyveli Lignite Corporation in June 2003. In September and December 2005, her government gave approval for 500 MW Kundah hydro power project and 500 MW unit at North Chennai. If the projects had been implemented by the previous DMK regime, the State would have got 3,000 MW additionally.

Referring to the improved performance of the North Chennai, Tuticorin and Mettur thermal power stations after her government assumed charge, she said additionally, 1,836 million units had been made available as a result of the steps taken by her administration. A sum of Rs. 642 crore had been saved by the State power utility.

As it was felt that the expeditious completion of the power generation projects in the State would alone be the lasting solution to the problem, the State government had given financial assistance of Rs. 6,455 crore to the power utility.

She expressed the hope that the shortage, which would gradually go down since June this year, would be completely overcome by the middle of 2013.