J&K to revive hydel project as heritage site

Asia's second-oldest hydel power project, over the Jhelum river near Uri in Kashmir, is being revived by the Jammu & Kashmir government.

Situated on the historic Jhelum Valley Road, connecting Srinagar with Muzzaffarabad (PoK), this 9-Mw hydel power project was constructed in 1905 by European engineers.

Commonly known as Mohura hydel power project, it is situated just a few kilometres from the 480-Mw Uri hydel power project. The power house of the project is lying defunct.

With the objective to promote tourism and protect it as a heritage site, the government is contemplating to prepare a fresh detailed project report (DPR) and handing over the project to a private company by inviting global tenders.

The project, which was based on the old European and American technology, was constructed by the help of two engineers from Germany and Hungary. One of them, however, died during trial run of the project due to electric shock.

The project was extensively damaged during the Partition in 1947. An effort was made by the state government in 1966 and it remained functional for some time. However, for the last three decades, the project has remained defunct with its employees sitting idle, while many have retired.

Despite being an achievement at that time for the US-based General Electrics (GE) which provided technical support and the machinery required, the project remained neglected.

A power ministry official said that the J&K government had taken a fresh initiative to revive this heritage power project as it would attract a large number of foreign and domestic tourists. He said that a fresh DPR was being prepared and tenders would be floated shortly.