The Uttarakhand government has decided to set up a unified command for the maintenance of its hydel project.
Under the new decision, the maintenance work, which was earlier being carried out by the state irrigation department, would now be undertaken by the unified command, the structure and various other modalities for which are being worked out, Principal Secretary Power Sharturghan Singh said.
A decision to this effect was taken by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, who called for a comprehensive action plan to increase power generation in the state.
The total power generation from all the state-run hydel plants is currently 4,500 million units. The government is trying to upgrade these projects to generate an extra 1,500 million units.
“The whole exercise is being done to generate extra power through upgrade,” Singh said.
However, Singh clarified that the government would also safeguard the interests of the irrigation department's employees, who were agitated over the government's decision to take away the maintenance of the hydropower plants from them.
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Official sources said the new unified command would comprise both employees of irrigation department as well as Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (UJVNL) which is the owner of all these projects.
Earlier, the government was getting complaints that the irrigation department was at loggerhead with UJVNL mostly on financial issues.
Significantly, the irrigation department is also trying to set up a hydel corporation for constructing and exploring new avenues.
A Cabinet decision in this regard is awaited. Last year, the government allotted Arakot Tyuni (81 Mw) and Tiuni Plasu (72 Mw) to the irrigation department.