Hyderabad, Nov 8 (IANS): Telangana is on its way to becoming a power surplus state with the construction of new plants to generate additional 13,752 megawatts, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said on Wednesday.

The government has fixed a target of increasing the installed generation capacity to 28,000 MW with an investment of Rs 94,000 crore.

He told the state assembly that when Telangana was created the installed capacity was 6,574 MW, a deficit of 2,700 MW. He claimed that during last three-and-half years additional 7,981 MW capacity was commissioned.

He recalled that when the state was formed there was severe crisis in power sector with two-to-nine-hour power cuts for domestic sector every day and two-day power holidays in a week for industries.

He announced that Telangana has created new record in the country by supplying quality power free of cost for 24 hours to the agricultural sector.

The supply of round-the-clock power to 23 lakh agriculture pump sets across the state began on experimental basis from Monday night.

"The transmission and distribution network will be closely monitored for five-to-six days and 24-hour uninterrupted power supply will begin on permanent basis from coming Rabi season," he said.

Rao told the House that 25 per cent of the power in the state is being utilised by agriculture pump sets.

Recalling that at the time formation of the state the farmers were not getting power even for two-to-three hours, he said daily nine-hour supply was ensured within a few days.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, said that with the 24-hour supply to agriculture sector, the total power demand will increase to 11,000 MW and power utilities were ready to meet this demand.

He said the new lift irrigation projects also require 8,500 MW of power. The new power plants will meet the demand for lift irrigation projects and new industries being established in the state.

The construction of 4,000 MW capacity Yadadri Ultra Mega Power Plant has started while 1,880 MW of power will be available by 2018 through the power plants which are under construction at Manuguru and Kothagudem. Another 1,600 MW power plant is under construction under aegis of NTPC.

"For achieving complete transparency and to avoid delays, the construction of power plants was handed over to public sector unit BHEL," he added.

The per capita power consumption has increased from 1,200 units at the time of formation of the state to 1,505 units. This is higher than the national average of 1,122 units.

He said the government put in a lot of effort to transform Telangana into a resplendent state. The transmission and distribution systems were strengthened with an investment of Rs 12,136 crore.