Lt Governor inaugurates 35 power projects in Jammu

Jammu, Jul 15: Giving a major push to strengthen Power sector in J&K, Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha Thursday inaugurated 35 power projects worth Rs 44.14 crores, augmenting the overall capacity in Jammu Division by 367 MVA.
On the occasion, the Lt Governor also launched several e-Services of Power Development Department, including the new provision for submitting application for getting a new electricity connection through online mode. Further, people can avail facilities of online bill payment, online complaint redressal, online security deposit calculation, besides using the online customer portal for their convenience.
Reiterating the UT Government’s mission of eliminating the past practices of delays in execution of projects, the Lt Governor stated that the present administration is working on the principle of accountable and responsive governance and is committed to ensuring time-bound completion of developmental projects to ease the life of citizens.
“Decade long overdue upgradation of power infrastructure is being done in a sustained manner. We are eliminating the legacy of delays. Languishing projects hanging for long are being completed in record times”, he added.
Electricity has been considered as a basic human need and hence it has been given priority in policy making and economy management. In spite of the ever-growing demand for power and availability of immense natural sources for energy generation in J&K, the infrastructure was not augmented in a way commensurate to meeting the demand, he added.
I want to assure all the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir that the administration is continuously working towards your needs and a long-term strategy is being implemented on the ground to ensure 20-22 hours of continuous electricity like other parts of the country.
The capacity augmentation of the Barn Grid station which is being inaugurated today should have been done in 2012 itself because in the same year it was targeted that the capacity of this grid station would be increased to 480 MVA by installing additional capacity of 160 MVA. Now, this important power project has been completed in record 119 days despite Covid pandemic which has been hanging for 9 years. This project will immensely benefit the remote areas of Poonch, Rajouri, Akhnoor, Jourian, Reasi and the adjoining areas of Jammu, the Lt Governor asserted.
These are the reforms the UT Government has brought in the work culture in J&K. I would like to congratulate all the officers and engineers of the Power Department for this, he added.
There is another example of Sawalkot project which was planned to be built in 1984. It was expected that 1856 MW of electricity would be generated from this project, but that too remained like a dream. This project was hanging for 36 years, which has been given the green signal this year, the Lt Governor observed.
I am deeply grateful to the Prime Minister and the Hon’ble Home Minister, whose priority is to make the lives of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir better, said the Lt Governor.
Terming augmentation of the power grid stations imperative to meet the increasing power demand, the Lt Governor stated that the Gladini Grid station whose capacity has been upgraded today has been long awaiting its capacity augmentation. Draba-Chandak transmission line which was hanging since 2014 was also completed to further strengthen the power distribution system.
This itself speaks about the approach of the UT Government towards strengthening the power sector in the region, he added.
Outlining the efforts made by the government to meet the aspirations of the people, the Lt Governor said that during the last 11 months, we have made groundbreaking reforms to fulfill the expectations of the people with full zeal.
Moving away from the old system, we have executed 35 power projects today, which also include many transmission and distribution projects, thus strengthening the system and management capacity of the entire Jammu division, added the Lt Governor.
The Lt Governor observed that preemptive winter preparedness was done in Kashmir which yielded favourable results due to the tireless and hard work of all the engineers and officials of the department and despite heavy snow, we are able to provide more electricity in the region.
In Jammu too, the preparation was well made in advance for the summers, but unfortunately, the general public had to suffer a lot, he said. I assure you that the power distribution system of Jammu division will be strengthened to its full potential so that in future, the people do not have to face any inconvenience.
Clear-cut instructions have already been passed to the power department to work on war footing in ensuring the uninterrupted power supply, besides several meetings were held with experts in the month of March-April in Jammu to improve the power supply system using the latest technologies. Despite all these efforts, many reasons have been identified for the problems present in the present system, and they are also being resolved, he observed.
I hope and believe that with the help of experts and engineers, we will be able to build a strong power supply system in Jammu and Kashmir in the coming times, said the Lt Governor.
Mentioning about the deliberations made during the recent review meeting of the Power Department, the Lt Governor observed that a provision has been suggested for incentivizing the field staff for their good work, besides taking strict action against those who are negligent.
Another key issue that came to the fore in the meeting was to arrange for real time monitoring in towns where electricity consumption is high so that people do not have to face problems due to undeclared cuts. And, instructions were issued to the Principal Secretary, Power Department and his team to work on this direction, said the Lt Governor.
On revenue generation in power sector, the Lt Governor noted that the new initiatives taken by the government in this regard are yielding good results. Along with transmission and distribution system, we are putting efforts to improve the revenue generation, he added.
There is no shortage of hydro resources in Jammu and Kashmir. We have a generation capacity of 14,867 MW of electricity, but in the last 70 years we were able to generate only 3504 MW. With our determined efforts, we will be able to generate additional power of 3498 MW in the next 4-5 years. With the rapid pace of development, where it took us 70 years to reach, we will reach there in just 5 years, maintained the Lt Governor.
Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, speaking on the occasion complimented the department on completion of the new projects. He called upon the officers to move towards digital platforms for efficient service delivery, besides making objective efforts to achieve better demand side management.
Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department gave a detailed briefing about the newly inaugurated power projects and new e-services of the Power department. He outlined broad reforms and steps being undertaken by the department to upgrade the power infrastructure in the region