In his inaugural address, the chief minister said the government had decided to withdraw soon the 30-minute load shedding imposed in the State. "Since the power supply situation has improved, we have decided to withdraw powercut in a phased manner. We already withdrew loadshedding in city areas a couple of months ago. As a second stage we will withdraw powercut imposed on households on Sunday and Monday," he said.

The Kerala government clamped powercuts on households three years ago, following acute power shortage. Monsoon failures in the past three years in a row hit hydel power generation, the mainstay of power generation in the State.

However, with the commissioning the 365mw NTPC's Kayamkulam Thermal plant and now with the commissioning of the first unit of the BSESpower plant in Kochi, the State could meet the peak load demand of 1950mw, the Chief Minister said. The State will soon add another 50mw to its installed capacity with the inauguration of the 50mw Kakkad hydel station.

The three generators of the Idukki hydel station, which had been closed for maintenance, would also become operational next month. Besides, two other power projects, the 120mw diesel station in Kozhikode and another 120mw third unit of Kayamkulam plant would become operational this year.

State power minister S Sarama said the installed capacity of the Kerala State Electricity Board would go up by over 50 per cent by the turn of the century. "When the present government took over the reins, the installed capacity of KSEB was 1505mw and hydel power was the only source. However, with meticulous energy planning, the State already added 694mw during the last three years. In the coming two years, with the commissioning of a string of power projects, the installed capacity of the State will go upto 2500mw by 2001," Sarma said.

The recent hike in power tariff was necessitated by the huge losses KSEB was suffering by supplying subsidised power. In the Government's view the power and industry sectors were complementary and players on both sides should understand the problems of the other.

BSES chairman and managing director RV Shahi said the combined cycle plant would become fully operational by December. He added that BSES was ready to double the capacity from the current 165mw to 330mw if the government gave the clearance. "We are ready to put up another 165mw unit in two years if the government gives the clearance."