Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan today directed the officers of the Power Department to accelerate the pace of work on the augmentation of Mir Bazar Grid Station.He passed on these directions during his visit to the Grid Station where upon he had a detailed review of the progress of civil, electrical and other works with the Chief Engineer, Superintendent Engineer and other officers of Power Development Department.He directed the officers to complete the civil works on the grid station within one month and said that the import of transformers should be expedited so that no time is lost.'The existing capacity of the grid station is 320 MVA and will be enhanced by an additional 155 MVA thereby increasing the capacity to 475 MVA. The total cost of the project is 29.53 crore', the Advisor was informed.Advisor while inspecting the progress of works, said that once the grid station is commissioned at the new capacity, the power supply will improve manifold to cater to the demands of consumer base including industrial and commercial segments. It will also improve reliability, distribution efficiency, voltage profile, reduction in faults, and voltage variations, he said.He emphasized that it would help in a big way to streamline the transmission and distribution of power in the Valley in general and in South Kashmir in particular.Advisor said that with the augmentation of grid station, there will be perceptible improvement in electricity scenario during the winters.
Advisor also said that augmentation of 220/132 KV Grid station Delina is also under progress and will be completed very shortly and will improve availability of electricity in the valley.He also enquired about other measures regarding winter preparedness from the concerned engineers and reiterated the instructions for ensuring better power supply to the consumers in the coming winters with regard to availability of transformers, completion of receiving stations under PMDP and IPDS, branch cutting along the corridors of power supply, replacement of poles and conductors wherever required. He further enquired about the staff strength and was informed by the Chief Engineer that adequate staff is deployed at all the locations and work is being carried out quite efficiently. While inspecting the records the Advisor directed the officers to keep the roster records of employees on duty available for perusal of senior officers and the inspecting officers should record their observations in the remarks column.Chief Engineer Power Development Department, Hashmat Qazi while giving details on the progress of the augmentation process said that this will be for the first time that 220/132 KV, 105 MVA single phase Auto Transformers with allied equipment and accessories will be installed anywhere in Kashmir.He said that with augmented capacity of other grids, capacity of grids connected to Mir Bazar has increased upto 650 MVA. He said that by this augmentation, load curtailments will be reduced and said that Anantnag, Kulgam, Banihal, Shopian Lassipora areas will be benefited.He further informed that grid station Pampore 220 KV shall also be relieved as it has a cascading effect on 220 kv Grid station Zainakote and Aulsteng, thus benefiting the whole valley.