Efforts on to make J&K a power surplus state: Govt

The Mehbooba Mufti government is in the process of exploring natural resources to generate more electricity to make Jammu and Kashmir a power surplus state. Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said today.
The road map for the transformation from power deficient to power surplus, include 1,401 MW projects under execution by state, Centre and under the Independent Power Producer (IPP) mode, he said in the Legislative Assembly here.
In a written reply to a question by Independent MLA Syed Mohammad Bakir Rizvi, he said 336.5 MW proposed projects were taken up under the Prime Minister's Development Package (PMDP).
Singh, who is the minister incharge of power, said 5,162 MW projects were cleared by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and Central Water Commission (CWC) and are under tendering stage, while 4,359 MW projects were at the Pre- Feasibility Report (PFR) stage.

He said 1,818 MW projects were under survey and investigation and detailed project report or appraisal stage. The deputy chief minister said the total identified hydro power potential accessed by CEA is 16,475 MW, out of which 11,283 MW is on river Chenab, 3,084 MW on Jhelum and 1608 MW on Indus.
A total of 3263.46 MW has been harnessed on the three western rivers from Jhelum, Chenab and Indus through state, central and IPP mode of execution, he said.
Explaining the reason for not executing the Para-Kachak hydel project despite completion of survey, Singh said it was allotted under Swiss-Challenge mode to messrs HCC limited for 100 MW capacity.

However, HCC has withdrawn from the project due to the reason that during the lean period, the required discharge is not available, hence not feasible, he said.