Jammu: Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh Tuesday said the government has provided Rs 2208.73 crore for upgrading power infrastructure in Kashmir.
“The funds have been provided for infrastructure up-gradation, strengthening and improvement of works under various centrally sponsored schemes including RAPDRP, IPDS, DDUGJY PMDP (Urban) and PMDP (Rural),” Dr Singh told the house while replying to a written question by Hakim Mohammad Yasin.
He said once the envisaged works under these schemes are completed, the power scenario would witness perceptible improvement in both urban as well as rural areas of Kashmir.
Dr Singh further informed that the existing transmission infrastructure needs to be upgraded to cater to the projected load demand of 3000 MVA at the end of 13th Five Year Plan.
“For this a Transmission Plan has been formulated for infrastructure development phasing over a period from 2016-17 to 2021-22. The capacity additions at different levels are proposed to be raised from 220/132 KV to 480 MVA, 220/33 KV to 1325 MVA and 132/33 KV to 860 MVA,” he added. He said the transmission plan is estimated to cost Rs 1850.07 crore and has been sent to Central Electricity Authority (CEA), New Delhi for vetting.
Out of this, an amount of Rs 414.00 crore has been sanctioned under PMDP and covers up-grading of power infrastructure in Srinagar district and its adjoining areas included industrial estates of Lassipora, the Dy CM added.
He further informed that construction of three GIS Grid Sub Stations Khanyar, Tailbal, Batapora, Tengpora in Srinagar and 220/33 KV GIS Grid Sub Station at Lassipora Industrial Estate has been included in Transmission Plan. He said the department has completed augmentation of Kulgam grid station from 40 to 70 MVA and Rawalpora Grid Station from 110 to 140 MVA and LJHP from 20 to 40 MVA during the current financial year.
Deputy Chief Minister also informed that an additional source of power of 630 MVA will become available with likely commissioning of 400kV D/C Jallandar-Samba-Kunzar transmission line and 630 MVA, 400/220kV Grid Station by M/s Sterlite at Kunzar Magam by the end of January 2018. He further informed the House that 220/132 kV, 320 MVA Grid Sub Station at Alusteng is scheduled to be commissioned by end of 2018.
Dr Singh said increase in power demand due to running of agriculture pump sets and excessive use of electronic gadgets force power curtailment in Jammu province during summer. He said the demand exceeds the installed capacity of the transformers at different levels and department is forced to go for scheduled and unscheduled curtailments at receiving station/grid station levels. He said the capacity of the existing infrastructure at all voltage levels is being increased by way of creation/augmentation under various centrally sponsored schemes like IPDS, PMDP-Urban and R-APDRP Part-B. He said the sanctioned cost of the schemes is Rs.775.710 crore.
Deputy Chief Minister informed the House that power generation falls during winter in Ladakh region, but power supply is ensured on curtailment basis through DG sets.
Dr Singh further informed the House that in Kashmir valley department has been supplying 1200 MW power during peak hours, whereas it is duty bound to provide only 700 MW power as per total consumer load-agreements. He said this year, since the onset of winters, the department has encountered around 1900 MW of unrestricted load during peak hours though the department is duty bound to provide 700 MW power supply as per load agreements. He said the department continues to supply around 1200 MW after enforcing curtailment schedule.
He said in respect of Jammu Division total unrestricted demand is 1350 MWs. He said on an average, peak load of the order of 1050-1100 MWs is being supplied while as the gap of 250 MWs is being met by implementation of curtailment programme except in industrial areas where the power is being supplied for 24 hours. He further said in the city areas the damaged distribution transformers are replaced on same day or within 24 hours. He said in rural areas the transformers are being replaced within 2 to 3 days and in case of distribution transformers of far-flung areas and more time may be taken due to manual carriage.
Dr Singh further informed the House that as per Census 2011, the total number of un-electrified villages in Jammu and Kashmir were 102 including 26 in Kashmir region, 58 in Jammu region and 18 in Ladakh region. He said these are being covered for electrification under DDUGJY and RGGVY-II schemes, respectively.
Deputy Chief Minister said in view of the delay in the award of the contracts for the DDUGJY scheme, and to meet the timeline set by Government of India, the department has taken up electrification of 84 un-electrified villages departmentally, while 18 other villages have been taken up by PGCIL.
He further said to meet the Government of India’s timeline of December 2019, the department has decided to take up the electrification of 54 un-electrified villages through off-grid connectivity, as per the decision of State Level Standing Committee. He said the matter has been taken up with the Union Ministry of Power to electrify these villages through Solar off grid mode. The on-grid electrification works of these villages will be carried on simultaneously, he added.
Dr. Singh further informed the House that for district wise electrification of 102 un-electrified villages an amount of Rs. 619.67 crore and Rs. 101.28 crore has been provided under DDUJY and RGGVY-II, respectively. He said Rs 2.50 crore stands allotted so far under these schemes to Jammu division while Rs. 68.20 lakh has been released, as State share, for electrification of 26 un-electrified villages of Kashmir Division.
Regarding the progress achieved with regard to allotment of receiving station at Raithan in Khansahab constituency, he said the tenders for construction of receiving station and other system strengthening works under DDUJY were invited and subsequently cancelled. He said re-tendering of the said works has not been undertaken till date owing to ongoing litigation in the High Court Srinagar.
The Deputy Chief Minister also informed that 13751 need based workers which include 7921 of Kashmir region, 361 of Ladakh region and 5469 of Jammu region have been cleared for regularization. He said in district Budgam 282 workers were engaged on need basis and no worker has been regularized after 1st. March, 2017.
Devender Rana, Nawang Rigzin Jora, Yawar Ahmad Mir, G M Saroori raised supplementary questions on the issue regarding their constituencies.
