New Delhi: The government on Friday said that it is soon going to introduce the revised Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme.

"APDRP Phase-II would be ready very soon," Power Secretary, Anil Razdan, told reporters.

The new Rs 50,000-crore APDRP scheme plans to bring the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (ATC) losses to less than 15 per cent by the end of 11th Five Year Plan in the urban and high population density areas.

"We should also reduce the distribution losses to 10 per cent," Razdan said.

According to the Power Ministry, overall ATC losses are around 35 per cent against about 39 per cent in 2001-02.

The government had approved APDRP in March 2003 to accelerate distribution sector reforms.

Besides reducing ATC losses, the scheme seeks to bring commercial viability in the power sector and reduce outages and interruptions.

Under the scheme, the government provides 50 per cent central assistance for strengthening and upgrading sub-transmission and distribution network.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram has earmarked an annual budgetary support of Rs 800 crore under the APDRP scheme in the Union Budget 2008-09.
Source : PTI