To take review of pre-construction activities associated with Sawalakote Hydel Power Project, District Development Commissioner, Mohammad Aijaz, today convened a joint meeting of engineers and managers of construction companies. The meeting was attended by Chief Engineer Abdul Wahid, ADDC Ravinder Sadhu, Chief Planning Officer Uttam Singh, Collector Sawalkote Project Zameer Reshu, Design Director HCC Girish Mhaskar, Manager-Admin HCC Ajit Singh Parihar, Nodal Officer Vijay Nagri, Project Manager SP Singla Construction Manoharlal Arora, Senior Site Engineer Sandeep Singh and other officers. The meeting was informed that 1856 MW Sawalkote Hydel project shall involve a total of 1400 hectare of land including the submergence part from main site upto Ramban town and at present Rs.5.00 crore have been disbursed among the land owners for acquiring 226 kanal of land, while certain pre-construction activities have also been started.It was further informed that the major works under the project include double lane 1500 meter access tunnel, 174 meter long steel bridge to connect both banks of river Chenab, main road and realignment of some approach roads. The total height of the dam is expected to be 192 meter from the river bed.
The tunnel shall be constructed by HCC and bridge by SP Singla construction.Chief Engineer informed the DDC that the design and structures have been proposed keeping in view their adaptability with the topography and seismic factors. For all aspects like forestation and soil conservation expert agencies shall be involved besides keeping the requisite funds for resettlement and rehabilitation of villagers to be affected during the construction work, he added. Threadbare discussion was held on issues of land acquisition, realignment of approach roads, rope way for transporting machinery, labourers and other equipment from left bank to right bank of the river. Stressing the importance of the ambitious project, DDC instructed the officers and engineers for conducting joint inspections to remove bottlenecks associated with the acquisition of land for the project keeping in view the priorities of the works. He directed the Collector Land Acquisition for early completion of all pending land acquisition cases to expedite the work. He further assured that periodical meetings shall be conducted for reviewing the time bound progress of different works associated with mega hydel project.