Even after passing of almost 11 years, grid station at Putushai village in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district is yet to be commissioned, even as the project has missed four deadlines.
Locals said that thefoundation of the project was laid in the year 2009 with the promise that itwould be completed in two years’ time to mitigate the power woes being faced bythe district.
“Almost 11 years have passed but the project is yet to becommissioned. This is pace of development with which successive regimes havebeen working on to construct a grid station here. This is very unfortunate thattwo governments have been in place in last 11 years but none has been able tocomplete and commission this grid station,” said Ali Mohammad Mir, a local resident.
The foundation ofthe grid station was laid when the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved theproject under PMRP but till date, the grid station is yet to be madefunctional.
Locals said that there has been an inordinate delay in theconstruction of the grid station owing to the indifference of successivegovernment s over the years. “It is failure of successive regimes as they havenot been able to commission the project. Similarly, the local districtadministration has also failed to take up the issue with the concernedauthorities to make the multi-crore project functional,” the residents said
Though the grid station has been completed and tested, the delay in laying transmission line anderecting transmission towers has left the project hanging. The grid station hasbeen constructed to benefit around 110 villages of the district.
However, on February 7, four under-construction transmissiontowers of the grid station collapsed due to heavy snowfall.
The collapse led to further delay in commissioning of theproject and raised eye-brows over the quality of work being carried out.According to details available with Greater Kashmir, the project has twocomponents viz 50 MVA, 132/33 KV grid station, and 132 KV D.C Transmissionline. The grid station was to be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 18crores.
The 132 KV DC Transmission line from Badampora, Ganderbal toBandipora was to be laid at an estimated cost of around Rs 20 crores.
Earlier, the grid station was to be commissioned in March2016, later the commissioning date was extended to December 2016 due to someROW (Right of Way) issues. In December 2016 also the commissioning of theproject got delayed and till date, the grid station is yet to be commissionedand made functional.
As already reported by this newspaper, in December last,then Deputy Commissioner Bandipora Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary had assured thatby the end of December 2018, grid station would be made functional.
On February 27, daysafter assuming charge as Deputy Commissioner Bandipora, Shahbaz Ahmad Mirza hadset April 12, 2019 deadline for commissioning of the grid station but a monthhas passed since then, grid station is yet to be made functional.
When contacted Chief Engineer System and Operations WingPDD, Javid Yousuf said that the grid will be “targeted for completion” withinnext two months. “If the contractors won’t be able to do it we will take overthe job by ourselves. We will deploy manpower from our side,” he said.