Jammu, Feb 5: Minister of state for Power, Vikar Rasool has said that development of  small hydro projects was high on the priority of the state government  for which “investor-friendly” policy has been notified.
 The Minister was speaking at the Power Ministers’ conference at New Delhi. Union Minister for Power, Jyotiraditya M. Scinida  presided over the function.
 Vikar, according to an official statement, underlined the need for single window system at the centre for timely clearance of the power projects submitted by the states.
 “The state government was committed to development of hydro power projects in the state and is also aware of the challenges in meeting the aspirations of the local people apart from environmental and forest clearances, difficult terrain and fragile mountains which often lead to time and cost overruns making investors wary of investments in the sector,” he said. 
 He said in the backdrop of rising local aspirations, the policy of 12 per cent free power to the generating states needs to be revised for equitable development of all stakeholders including local communities.
 The Minister said that the process of clearance of hydel projects by various central agencies like CEA, CWC, Indus Water Commission and the Ministry of Environment  and Forest needs to be streamlined and made time bound.
 He said the implementation of 14 RGGVY projects is under process in the state. However, he said that there was a sizeable portion of un-electrified/de-electrified and partially electrified villages/hamlets which need to be taken up under RGGVY Phase-II.
 He said the R-APDRP is under implementation in 13 towns of the state, while the works under all components of Part-A were also  in progress.
 Vikar said that the state has taken an initiative to harness its available  thermal potential and a 5MW Technology-cum-Demonstration-cum-Resource Assessment Geo-Thermal project being set up in Puga, Leh has been awarded.
 He said that the state has a huge hydro power potential of around 11,000 MW in Chenab basin and several projects are under execution or planned along the river.
 The minister stressed  need for developing a comprehensive and integrated transmission network instead of laying individual dedicated lines is the requirement, besides the construction of pooling station of 765 KV level in the area so that upcoming projects can conveniently evacuate power to the any part of the country, this he said, needs to be expedited.
 While thanking the Prime Minister for offering massive re-construction programme in transmission sector, the Minister said that the benefits of the same can be better passed to the people of the state if matching investment is also approved for distribution segment. He said that an amount of around Rs. 1300 crore for transmission under PMRP should normally be accompanied with an amount of Rs. 2600 crore for upgrading the distribution system so as to manage the load growth over the years.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 5 Feb 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 5 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 6 Feb 2013 00:00:00 IST