Jammu, Apr 26: Central Electricity Authority of India has approved the proposal of Jammu and Kashmir government to enhance the generation capacity of upcoming Sawlakote Hydro Electric Power Project from 1200 MWs to more than 1850 MWs.
 Official sources said that the proposal was cleared in a high level meeting held between the officials of the state government and Central Electricity Authority of India (CEAI) at New Delhi, recently.
 “The state has been asked to go ahead with the proposal to complete the power project in two phases,” a senior officer said. He added that the first phase will be of 1406 MWs and second phase of 450 MWs.
 Managing Director Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Corporation (JKPDC) Basharat Dar confirmed the reports saying that the new Detailed Project Report (DPR) is being prepared keeping in view the approved generation capacity.
 “The approved power generation capacity of the project was 1200 MWs but when we revisited the proposal we realized that the project can generate more than 1800 MWs of power without major changes in its design and capacity,” Dar said adding the matter has now been approved by the CEAI and it was being vigorously pursued by the PDC.
 He said the project will have two phases but the civil works will be taken up together on the pattern of Baglihar HEPP. The MD said the new DPR is likely to be completed by the end of this year. “The DPR has several components including water series, potential, dam design, environment studies, studies regarding local strata, geological studies and environment clearance”, he said adding that the geological studies of the project was underway, while the Government of India has also appointed a consultant to carry out the environment studies.
 A run of the river project located between state owned Baglihar and NHPC-run Salal on Chenab river, the proposed Sawlakote power project remained surrounded in major controversies since 1997 when the then NC government offered it to limited bidding. On basis of its offer to arrange 85 percent of the project cost through export credit and completing the project in 78 months, state run Power Development Corporation (PDC) signed an MoU with Norwegian Statkraft Anlegg / Kvaerner Energy in July 1999.
 However, in 2000 when another Norwegian major NCC International bought Statkraft Anlegg, it floated NCC-led Sawalkot Consortium. During this period the Jammu and Kashmir PDC got its techno-economic appraisal through Lahmeyer International, its technical advisers on Baglihar.
 State government subsequently signed an agreement with the consortium in 2001 in presence of visiting Norwegian prime minister in Delhi. However, the controversy erupted when Mufti Muhammad Sayeed took over the reign of power in the state. The consortium was forced to renegotiate the contract. After a series of meetings with state's policy makers SPAS – NCC's special purpose company to lead the Sawalkote Consortium– signed a fresh contract on February 3, 2005 for setting up entire 1200-MW project at a cost of euro 415 million and Rs 1,926.25 crore.
 The reappraisal saved over Rs 700 crore. Officials associated with the exercise said the cost-reduction was the outcome of restructuring the entire project and Indianising it by taking Indian HCC and Turkish Ozaltin as two other partners in place of more expensive Germans.
 The complete process, however, came to a grinding halt after the previous government headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad cancelled the contract with the consortium. Subsequently in January, last year, the present government asked the consortium to submit a fresh DPR strictly as per the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) norms.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST