Rising interests costs, increased competition and operational costs, rise in wage bill and other staff costs, depreciation in rupee value and spurting landing, handling and navigational charges were other reasons for the losses, he said in a written reply.

During 1997-98, Air India had accumulated a loss of Rs 181.01 crore, he said, adding that the airline has initiated marketing efforts to generate additional revenue, reduction in expenditure, network rationalisation and abolishment of posts abroad to boost its performance.

A committee of experts had been set up under finance secretary Vijay Kelkar to comprehensively examine reasons for the loss and suggest strategies to turn around the company.

Replying to a question on divestment of Air India, the minister saidrecommendations of the disinvestment panel were under government's consideration. The civil aviation ministry had also recommended disinvestment of 40 per cent of government's stake in Pawan Hans.

Private power projects may be hampered: The government on Tuesday admitted in Rajya Sabha that power capacity addition from private sector in the Ninth Plan may not reach anticipated levels owing to the continued financial ill-health of state electricity boards.

Replying to supplementaries during question hour, power minister PR Kumaramangalam said fate of private projects was linked to commercial viability of state electricity boards and unless they become financially viable, private sector efforts may not fructify to the desired extent.

The state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has revised its capacity addition target for the Ninth Plan to 17,000mw, the minister said.

He said Tamil Nadu had a 500mw power shortage at present, which would turn to a situation of surplus by 1999-end whena couple of key projects would be commissioned.

While NTPC is currently preparing a detailed project report for its 1500mw coal-based project at Cheyyoor, another venture with Neyveli Lignite Corporation for a 2000mw plant based on lignite is also progressing, he said.

He said Maharashtra had a peak load shortage of 400mw and a non-peak surplus of 800mw. Once Enron's Dhabol project is commissioned, the state would be in a position to sell power.

Kumaramangalam also said World Bank had sought a fresh environment certificate for NTPC's Talcher-II project before clearing a $2.2-billion loan.

Since the certificate imposed restrictions that were far more rigid than global standards, the government decided to go in for external commercial borrowings to raise funds for the project.

NTPC's good global rating and the fact that Talcher-II is a pit-head project means that there are no doubts about the financial viability of the ECBs, he said.

To another question, the minister said 19 million tonnes of coalper annum has been accorded from the Gopalpur tract of the IB valley coal fields for the 3960mw Hirma thermal power project.

Promoted by Consolidated Electric Asia (India) in Jharsujuda district of Orissa, this would be the largest power project proposed in the country so far in the private sector and the first phase is slated to be commissioned 39 months after the project achieves financial closure.

The minister said of the 2438 urban residential land owners in old Tehri town to be rehabilitated as part of the Tehri dam project, authorities have developed and alloted residential plots to 2400 while the rest is yet to file application seeking allotments.

Technology upgradation in textile industry soon: A massive technology upgradation scheme in the textile industry would be launched across the country at an estimated cost of Rs 25,000 crore, textiles minister Kashiram Rana told Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

The technology upgradation fund scheme, scheduled to be implemented from April next year, isawaiting union cabinet's approval, Rana said while answering supplementaries during question hour.

The fund is being created to facilitate modernisation for enhancing viability and competitiveness of the industry, he said.

Under the scheme, an interest incentive of five percentage points on loans availed from designated (nodal) financial institutions/banks is proposed to be provided to eligible units in the identified sectors of textile industry, Rana said.

"The government is very serious in the development of the industry which is engaging as many as two crore people across the country," Rana said.

Mamata threatens agitation against PSU closure: Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has threatened to launch an agitation if government failed to take immediate action to halt proposed closure of eight public sector undertakings in West Bengal.

She said the finance minister could not take such a "drastic step" as the issue had not been referred to the disinvestment commission.

"Please donot not compel us to launch an agitation," she said, noting that the government should not close down `swadeshi' companies while allowing multinationals to come in under the liberalisation policy.

Port development: The government is taking a series of steps to lure back the container traffic it lost to Sri Lankan ports and intends to spend a substantial sum of money during the Ninth Plan on dredging at ports to facilitate large ships. This was stated by union surface transport minister M Thambi Durai in Rajya Sabha while replying to a host of supplementaries during question hour.

Admitting that India had lost container business to Sri Lanka owing to high levels of siltation and inefficient cargo handling, Thambi Durai said government would spend Rs 16,000 crore in the Ninth Plan to bring ports to global standards.