Nathpa generates record output in 1st quarter of '07

The Nathpa Jhakri Hydel project has generated a record 2,415 million units of power in the first quarter of the current financial year, thereby setting a new record.

This rise is largely being attributed, by project engineers, to the waters of river Sutlej, which have been relatively free of high silt content this summer.

In the past, high silt had forced engineers to partially and sometimes completely shut down country's largest project, which has a capacity of generating 1,500 Mw power.

"The revenue from the project, earned between April and June, has exceeded Rs 500 crore," said Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (the public sector company which runs the project) Chief HK Sharma.

"The plant generated 300 million units more than last year, showing an increase of around 15 per cent," said Sharma.

Built at a cost of some Rs 9,000 crore, the project began commercial generation two years ago and has so far produced over 12,800 million units of electricity. The project supplies much-needed power to the northern grid, which feeds all the states of northern India.

A year ago the project remained shut for several weeks due to flash floods triggered by the bursting of an artificial lake, formed upstream in the high mountains of neighbouring Tibet.