New Delhi, Apr 28: The Jammu and Kashmir government has sought Centre’s intervention in helping it out on the execution of Baglihar project-II.
 The minister of state for power Shabir Ahmad Khan while enumerating the state government’s programmes on power at the 4th conference of power ministers here, said the government has started implementation of 450 MW Baglihar Hydro Electric Project Stage-II.
 “The state government has requested the Union government to extend the same level of liberal financial assistance for the execution of Baglihar (450 MW) Stage-II as done in the case of Baglihar Phase-I. In this pretext, the Centre should invest liberally and urgently in the survey and investigation of projects to be taken up in the 12th and 13th Five Year Plan,” Khan told the conference chaired by Union power minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde.
 Expressing concern over what he termed discriminatory provisions in the Indus Water Treaty, Shabir said:“The Jammu and Kashmir continues to be put to untold hardships and disadvantages on account of the discriminatory provisions contained in the Indus Water Treaty. The State has lost its right of impounding and optimally utilizing the waters of Indus, Chenab and Jhelum rivers to take care of the seasonal variations in power demand.”
 He said that there was an urgent need to initiate measures to mitigate the hardships of the people by way of liberally allocating funds for the State sector projects and by implementing recommendations of various working groups in this regard.
 He said the state has huge potential for the development of geo-thermal energy in Ladakh area which is yet to be tapped.
 He said the State Generation Company, JKSPDC, has been tasked to develop the geo-thermal energy. He requested the Centre to extend a helping hand in the early exploitation of geo-thermal energy.
 Khan said during the 3rd Conference of Ministers of Power last year, the government chalked out an ambitious hydel capacity addition programme to add 6760 MW hydro power by the end of 12th Plan. “Our DPRs and clearances are ready in most cases and we have put in place a framework for the development of these projects”.
 He said that the new projects under state sector including Baglihar Stage-II (450 MW), Sawalkote (1200 MW), Kirthai-I (240 MW), Kirthai-II (990 MW), Lower Kalnai (50 MW), New Ganderbal (93 MW) and Parnai (37.5 MW), Ratle (690 MW) have been allotted under IPP on tariff based bidding under by the State Power Development Corporation. He said under Central Sector SEWA-II (120 MW) has been completed and is being commissioned by NHPC shortly.
 Shabir said the Central electricity Act 2003 does not apply to J&K and the State legislature has passed its own Electricity Act 2010 on the pattern of Central Electricity Act.
 He said that the State Electricity Regulatory commission has already notified Open Access Regulations in 2006.
 However, the issues which need attention of Government of India for realizing the above said goals are reiterated once again which included single window and fast track clearances by Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Environmental Forest, Indus Commission, Ministry of Power. For transmission network to be laid between Srinagar and Leh, Union Ministry of Power is recommending the case to planning commission for re-including the scheme under PMRP for their approval.
 He hoped that the state government will continue to receive timely funds from the Centre for the implementation of power projects.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST