Cost over-run on the 390-mw Dulhasti hydro-electric project in Jammu & Kashmir is in the tune of 1,840 per cent. The cost estimate has jumped from Rs 183 crore to Rs 3,560 crore as the project has got delayed by more than 10 years.

This, however, is not the only power project that has got costlier and delayed, according to official sources. The cost over-run of the 710-mw Koel Karo project in Bihar is 435 per cent, up from Rs 445 crore to Rs 2,378 crore. But while the Dulhasti project is anticipated to end in March 2001, the fate of the Koel Karo project is uncertain.

Similarly, the Dhauliganga project in UP is 213 per cent, from Rs 612 crore to Rs 1,881 crore, and the delay is about of six years. In the case of the Doyang project in Nagaland, the cost over-run is about 597 per cent,moving from Rs 96 crore to Rs 671 crore. Cost over-run for the Nathpa Jhakri project in Himachal Pradesh is 357 per cent; for the Panchet Hill project in Bihar, 412 per cent; for the Ranganadi project in Arunachal Pradesh, 304 per cent; and for the project in Bankura, West Bengal, 251 per cent.

Thermal power generation for April-November 1998 remained below 2.7 per cent of the target. In nuclear and hydel power generation, however, the performance exceeded the target by 14.8 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively. The total power generation during the period was 290.45 billion units, which was 6.1 per cent more than that in the corresponding period in 1997. The target was 294.9 billion units.