Export power to Pakistan to fill Punjab coffers: IIM-Ahmedabad

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• on April 18, 2017
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Many experts see Punjab’s border with Pakistan as a liability because drugs and terrorists sneak through it, wreaking havoc. But a study by India’s premier B-school, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), sees an opportunity in Punjab’s unique geography.
A study , ‘Tariff and related matters: The electricity sector in Punjab’, prepared in May 2016 after the Pathankot terror strike, says Punjab, which has a massive Rs 1.34 lakh crore debt, can use the border to substantially increase its annual revenue collection. All the new Captain Amarinder Singh government has to do is sell its surplus electricity to Pakistan.
The proposal has come at a time when Punjab has borne the brunt of two of the deadliest terror strikes in recent years originating from Pakistan – the Gurdaspur attack at Dinanagar of 2015 in which seven people were killed and the Pathankot airbase strike in early 2016 in which eight people died.
The IIM-A study has crunched the numbers and given three ways by which the state can evacuate surplus power of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL). Punjab call sell its electricity to powerdeficit states like UP, sell it in the open market and to large consumers like Railways and export it to Pakistan.
“Pakistan is facing acute energy crisis at the moment.There is scope to export power to Pakistan. The total available capacity for generation in Pakistan was only 12,361 megawatts (MW) in April 2016 ,” says the study , authored by G Raghuram and T S Krishnan. A study by India’s premier Bschool, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), sees an opportunity in Punjab’s unique geography .
The study authored by G Raghuram and T S Krishnan says that as per projections, the need is bound to jump to about 40,000 MW by 2020. Jermaine Kearse Jersey

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