Hyderabad, Dec 26 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Government has resorted to purchase of power from West Bengal to avoid any power cut to various sectors, as various parties stepped up stirs demanding nine hours of power supply to the farm sector in the state.

''Evenwhile stepping up hydel power generation at Srisailam, the Andhra Pradesh Government is procuring power from West Bengal and Kolkata Electricity company to meet the power demand of 6116 MW in the state'', official sources told UNI.

''Unlike the past, we are not resorting to any load relief now'', they said, adding that ''We have stepped up power generation to eight million units at the Srisailam Hydel power generation and purchased 2.01 million units yesterday and another 1.7 million units today from Kolkata''.

''We are overdrawing about 100 MW from Central power generating units in order to avoid any loadshedding. We have advised the distribution companies to manage the demand-supply gap periodically and ensure that the power frequency does not fall below the permissible limit'', they added.

They said power position was expected to improve when the eighth and tenth unit of the Kothagudem Thermal Power station resumed power generation by the end of this month. Power would be purchased from other states during January also, they added.

They said a sum of Rs 125 crore had been earmarked for purchase of power from other states, including Orissa.

The tripping of a 1000 MW unit of the Simhadri power plant triggered the power crisis.

UNI SM KVV PDM KN1757