How to free the much talked about Bursur Hydroelectric Project in Kishtwar district from the cobweb of procedural knots and tangles must be baffling those technical and non technical officers who mooted and conceived the idea nearly more than a decade back .That it continues to wriggle even as on date due to this reason, resulting in no time – frame specified for starting work on it, is unacceptable.
This project should have received preferred attention as it had the distinction of the Prime Minister’s office flagging it as a project on priority to tap available potential of water on a large scale under the ambit of Indus Water Treaty.
Huge expenditures in crores of Rupees were spent on surveys and investigation works during 2008-09 and 2012-13 respectively, followed by the decision of shifting the site of the project. This expenditure could have been avoided had the choice of the project based on technical economic feasibility been made at the first instance plus an inordinate delay of several years could have been averted. However, the change in site cleared by the Central Water Commission has not enabled things to move about. Procedural hold-ups and clearance of Detailed Project Report which is under appraisal in Central Water Commission since 2017 for want of necessary vital information from the State Government has resulted in the project slipping into a State of uncertainty.
We hope the State Government would start addressing these aspects in the right earnest and at the outset, clear all queries and arrange to send clarifications as also irrigation plan to the concerned Union Ministry in deference to the directions issued many a time from the office of the Prime Minister. This project has the privilege of being named as national project and let the State Government make it worth that , by starting work on it immediately after disposing off all pending procedural paper work.
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