Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, June 29: Through J&K is plagued with severe power crisis as people are facing acute power curtailments for over 10 hours duration, the State Government has failed to restore the two power projects which have developed a snag for over last one year.
According to sources, hundreds of crores of rupees were spent on the construction of Sewa Hydel Project in Basohli tehsil of Kathua district in Jammu region and Upper Sindh Stage II, Kangan in Ganderbal district of Kashmir valley and these two power projects have developed a snag after a portion of the power canals of both these projects was washed away in heavy rains over a year back. While Sewa III is totally defunct for a year now, the USHP State II is partially functioning as one unit of it out of three units generating 35 mws of power is defunct for last two years, sources added.
Sources said the nine megawatt Sewa III in Basohli tehsil of Kathua district which was commissioned in 2002 and which has a capacity of generating nine mws of electricity is defunct for last one year after over 300 meters of canal was eroded at Mashika village due to washing away of the road along side the canal by the Ravi river during heavy rains last year.
Since then the road leading to Mashika village is also cut off and the people have to cover a long distance in reaching their village, sources added.
Sources said the damage was caused to the canal due to the wrong designing as there was hardly a distance of some meters between the mighty Ravi river flowing along the project and its canal bed. Had the authorities applied the mind and diverted the canal over 100 to 200 meters away from the Ravi river at this particular place, the canal would have been saved from land erosion by the floods.
Sources said crores of rupees were spent on construction of Sewa Hydel Project III by the Government and it was wasted as the canal is totally defunct for over one year now.
“Had the project been functional it could have supplied the electricity to the surrounding areas of Basohli,” they added.
Blaming the authorities who constructed the project for the snag, Ram Kumar a local resident of the area said crores of rupees were wasted on this project. The Government is totally sleeping as no one has been taken to task for such a huge loss to State exchequer.
The people are facing power crisis and our projects are proving total failure on which crores of rupees are being spent said Sanju Ram another local resident of the area. He said the Mashika village is totally cut off and people have to travel a huge distance to reach Basohli.
He said when the Sewa IInd which is at stone’s throw from Sewa III constructed by NHPC is functioning properly and generating over much more power than it why Sewa III became defunct?
Sources said likewise one unit of Upper Sindh Hydro Electric Project Kangan in Ganderbal district of Kashmir valley is defunct for last two years now after a portion of Wangat canal got eroded. The project, which has a capacity of generating 105 mws of power from its three units is generating only 75 mws of power during peak hours at present as its one unit is totally defunct now.
Sources said that Government has failed to initiate inquiry and pin point the officers responsible for such a huge loss to state exchequer. The USHP II has been constructed at a cost of over 100 crores of rupees, sources added.
With the washing away of the canals of these two power projects, the State exchequer has been put to a heavy loss not in the shape of money spent on their construction but in the shape of income got from the power generated by these two projects.
When contacted the authorities in PDC said that the DPR for Sewa Third has been framed and the tenders for restoration of the canal will be issued soon to make the power House functional.
The authorities said that the work on restoration of Wangat canal of USHP IInd has been started and it will be completed soon.
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