The 72nd meeting of the Board of Directors of Jammu & Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC) was held at the Civil Secretariat today under the chairpersonship of Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti.In his presentation, MD JKPDC informed the Board about various ongoing projects of the Corporation and the future roadmap for augmenting power generation in the state. The Corporation is presently looking after 23 hydropower projects with a total installed capacity of 1211.96 MWs besides four IPPs of 42.5 MWs. Four projects are under implementation in the state sector with a capacity of 103.5 MWs and three major projects with an expected generation capacity of 3176 MWs are in the pipeline.Mr Dheeraj Gupta, Commissioner Secretary, Power Development Department (PDD) briefed the Board regarding various ambitious projects in state sector like 1850 MW Sawalakote HEP, 390 MW Kirthai-I and 930 MW Kirthai-II which are at an advanced stage of appraisal with Central Electricity Authority (CEA).
The Chief Minister, who is also the Chairperson of the Board, stressed the critical importance of hydropower sector to the state economy and emphasized that work on the ongoing projects as well as the exploration of new projects will have to be pursued vigorously. She further instructed that decision making with respect to allotment and execution of power projects should be time-bound to ensure that the state gets the dividends of increased power generation.In a major decision taken in the meeting the long pending contract allotment issue of the 93 MW New Ganderbal Hydropower Project was discussed and it was decided that the matter will be referred to the State Cabinet.The Board approved the constitution of Management and Finance Sub-Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr Nirmal Singh, Deputy Chief Minister and Audit and Compliance Subcommittee under Chief Secretary for better oversight of the organizational matters pertaining to JKSPDC.It was also decided that besides Power Finance Corporation, other traders will also be explored by PDC for selling of 60% power from Baglihar Hydroelectric Project Phase-II to get a competitive tariff. It was also decided to approach Union Ministry of Power for allocation of power quotas from BHEP-2 to the neighboring states for guaranteed flow of revenue for servicing of the loan.
Keeping in view the importance of JKSPDC for the state economy and to keep the tariff competitive, the Board agreed to refer the matter regarding the exemption of Water Usage Charges to the Finance Department for further examination.Board approved the award of consultancy services for checking of design and construction supervision of 1500M long tunnel on access road to Sawalakote and 178 M long steel bridge over river Chenab to M/S Rodic Consultants who have been selected through a two stage competitive bidding process.A road tunnel from Power House to Baglihar Dam was approved to be executed through M/S JAL at an estimated cost of Rs 6.54 crore. This tunnel will facilitate better access to the dam in view of the challenging geology of the region.The Board also ratified the equity contribution of Rs 460 crore released to Chenab Valley Power Projects Ltd (CVPPL), a Joint Venture company of the JKSPDC that is executing the Pakaldul, Kiru and Kawar Power Projects with an aggregate capacity of 2164 MW.The meeting was also attended by Mr Nirmal Singh, Deputy Chief Minister J&K, Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi, Minister of State for Power, B R Sharma Chief Secretary, B B Vyas, Financial Commissioner Planning and Development Department, Mr Dheeraj Gupta Commissioner Secretary Power Development Department, Shah Faesal, MD JKPDC, besides executive directors of the PDC, Muzaffar Lankar, Ajay Gupta, Director Finance Upinderjit Singh and Sunil Gupta Company Secretary JKSPDC.