A number of farmers whose land has been acquired by the government for the construction of 220 KV Srinagar-Leh transmission line in Gund tehsil of Ganderbal district are awaiting compensation for a year now.
The land has been alloted to the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL), the executing agency for construction of the 220 KV Srinagar-Leh transmission line. PGCIL was to compensate the landowners via government.
The affected land owners said the land, which has been acquired from them, was cultivable and would provide them good returns in terms of crops and walnut produce. “But when the PGCIL took over the land, they chopped off most of the trees, adding that by taking over their land, the landowners have been denied the source of income.
“We suffered a loss as the land and trees were our regular source of income and surprisingly the authorities are even now delaying the compensation to us despite completing all required formalities” an affected landowner from Ramwari village of Gund tehsil told Greater Kashmir.
The 332 km long, 220 KV Transmission Line passing through Srinagar-Zojila Pass-Drass- Kargil-Khalsti to Leh and four 220/66 KV substations in Drass, Kargil, Khalsti and Leh.
The sanctioned cost of the Project is Rs 1,788 crore. The cost of the project will be borne by the Centre and State in the ratio of 95:5. The project was approved in January 2014 and is scheduled for commissioning in September 2017. Once completed the project will feed power to Ladakh region and interlink J&K’s existing 66 KV system.
The electricity supply system of Ladakh region is currently isolated from the Northern Grid and fed through local small hydro generation and diesel generator sets. The region is experiencing energy shortage and accordingly to overcome this shortage, 220 KV Transmission Line has been planned to improve reliability of power supply through interconnection with the Northern Grid.
The Project is being executed by Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) and subsequently will be transferred to J&K Government.
An official of PGCIL said that they have already credited the compensation amount of the land to the district administration, who have to disburse it to the affected landowners.
Deputy Commisioner, Ganderbal, Piyush Singla told Greater Kashmir that there were some issues with related to the disbursement of the compensation to the farmers, land owners, adding that many cases earlier were cleared and within a few weeks all the pending compensation related cases will be cleared.