Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu, Mar 7: Third meeting of committee constituted by Ministry of Power, Government of India, for development of “Roadmap for Power Sector in J&K and Ladakh regions”was held today. The committee has been assigned with the responsibility to prepare a prospective power plan for J&K, taking into consideration the adequacies/ inadequacies in different sectors and any other factors so as to provide 24×7 power supply to all the consumers.
The meeting was attended by Alok Kumar, Principal Secretary(Industries), UP, M. Raju, Secretary, Power Development Department, R. Lakshmanan, CEO, REC, Mohammad Aijaz, Managing Director, KPDCL, senior officers from Central Government, State Government and representative from Tata Power and PWC, Delhi.
At the outset, Secretary,Power Development Department gave the detailed stock of restricted and un-restricted demand being met in Jammu and Kashmir regions as per the available infrastructure and resources while the power demand projections in the coming five years were also estimated.
He further said that the department has undertaken large scale infrastructure development works under various Centrally Sponsored Schemes which are expected to be completed by the end of this year which will improve the power scenario of the UT to a large extent.
The department has also worked out the requirement to fill the infrastructure gap for providing 24×7 power supply to all the consumers in all districts of the UT for which the detailed project reports in both Distribution and Transmission sectors have been formulated and forwarded to Government of India for financial assistance.
The committee was also appraised that the Corporations formed after unbundling of the power sector have been made fully functional from February, 2020 by formation of respective BoDs.
Starting from the generation sector, it was informed that the JKPDCL has drawn up a roadmap for systematic capacity addition by harnessing UTs large hydel potential which is anticipated to make the UT energy surplus by 2025. This would be possible with the development of 22 SHPs/Mega Hydel projects, which will also help in achieving the RPO targets set by the Government of India.
In the transmission sector, the committee held detailed discussion with the Chief Engineers and the representatives of PGCIL regarding the development of inter-state and intra-state transmission systems of UT of J&K. The progress of the ongoing transmission projects was also reviewed during the meeting.
In the distribution sector, it was informed that the installation of smart meters has already been started in Jammu and Srinagar cities, which will be further extended to all the consumers of UT of J&K within next two years. This will not only facilitate proper energy accounting but will also enhance consumer satisfaction.The committee stressed upon the PDD officers to intensify their enforcement activities so that the losses in the power sector could be minimised.
Detailed discussions were also held on the need for overall institutional reforms and efficiency improvement in the sector and the committee also suggested that for effective monitoring and timely execution of the projects, project monitoring units be constituted in all the corporations of the power sector.
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