Energy resource development in the five year plans

Abstract

Energy resource development is not considered as a unified topic in any of the five year plans. In addition, the grouping of energy investments changed from plan to plan reflecting changes in administrative organization. The earlier plans contain a section on irrigation and power which covers investments in hydropower and thermal power plants. The Fourth and Fifth Plans separate irrigation and flood control from power investments. Coal resource development is discussed under the heading of mineral resource development. Oil and natural gas resource investments are covered under industrial development, or a similar classification, and investments in nuclear energy are included in scientific, technical, and industrial research or the power category. Throughout the planning period, each energy resource was considered together with the use for that energy or as a part of the industrial or development sector to which it was attached. In the material that follows, an effort will be made to separate energy resource investments from the development sector to which they are attached for planning purposes and to recombine them in such a way as to obtain an overall picture of energy resource development strategies over the five year plans.