A key initiative of the AIADMK government has been the plan to set up new state-owned power plants of over 6,300 MW . But these plants have barely reached the tender stage. Officials say the main reason is delays in getting environmental clearances from the Centre. In the early part of the decade when the power cuts started becoming longer and slowed down industial production, power managers had decided that new plants will have to be commissioned practically every year to take care of the demand growth of over 1,000MW every year. The six plants that have been planned are the key to securing the state's immediate energy future. Yet, out of the six, the contract for building only one plant has been awarded -the 660MW Ennore thermal power project to Lanco. The rest are lagging behind. “For each project we go through several procedures and of all these the environmental clearance alone takes up to 1.5 years. Only after we get the envi ronmental clearance, we can take other steps like getting clearances for water and coal,“ said a senior TNEB official. Since the state has a coal mine in Chhattisgarh and also imports coal, there is no problem with fuel linkage, he adds. The official assures that the state helps joint venture projects by find ing coal for them. “Of the six, four projects have got environmental clearance. We will soon reach the tender process for them. For the re maining two projects we are pushing hard for green clearances,“ he said. “The government has done a good job in commissioning three thermal plants in the state in the last three years. But it should also have promoted private power companies like Maharashtra to set up new plants. This will save time and public investment,“ said KPMG power expert Arvind Mahajan. Experts say that just awarding contracts may not be enough. Lessons learned from recent experiences in commissioning should be applied so that delays are reduced in future. A key aspect has been dealing with equipment supplier BHEL. Officials recall how the NLC plant in Neyveli had boiler problems. In the case of the North Chennai plant, the generator fell into the Ganges while being transported from BHEL's Hardwar plant. For faster commissioning, Tamil Nadu government and the Central government should coordinate and work according to a fixed schedule, says KPMG's Mahajan. “The Union power ministry and the industries ministry should look into the problems faced by BHEL to speed up delivery of boilers to thermal plants,“ he said.