Governor reviews implementation of Power Sector schemes

          SRINAGAR, JULY 17: Governor N. N. Vohra reviewed the implementation of important schemes in the Power Sector in a meeting held today at Raj Bhavan.

Sh. B. B. Vyas, Advisor to Governor;  Sh. B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Sh. K.B. Agarwal, Financial Commissioner, Housing and Urban Development Department; Sh. Navin Kumar Choudhary,  Principal Secretary Finance; Sh. Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary Planning; Sh. Shailendra Kumar, Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce;  Sh. Hirdesh Kumar, Commissioner Power Development Department; Sh. Shahid Anayatullah, Commissioner Revenue; senior executives of Central PSUs - PGCIL, RECPDCL, RECPTCL - and officers from State PSUs - JKSPDC, CVPPPL-and senior officers of the Power Development Department participated in the meeting.

 Sh. Hirdesh Kumar made a detailed presentation on the position of energy access and availability and the demand and supply position of Power in the State. He also gave a picture of generation, transmission and distribution plans of the State; implementation status of various Hydroelectric projects being implemented by JKSPDC and CVPPL. The meeting was informed that 380 projects worth Rs. 8000 crore have been sanctioned under Centrally Sponsored Schemes of DDUGJY, IPDS, RGGVY-II and PMDP, of which work on 149 projects have been completed and in 127 projects work is in progress. Of the 380 projects, tenders for 361 have already been floated and for the remaining 19 works, tenders shall be floated within 15 days. These works largely belong to development of 1000 MW PakalDul Hydro Electric Project, 220 KV Srinagar-Leh Transmission Line, 32 projects of Inter-state Transmission System, 273 projects of strengthening of distribution network in the rural and urban areas across the State and advance technology intervention projects including smart metering/ pre-paid metering and smart grid project.

          Power Secretary also gave the to-date status of electrification and informed that all the villages in the State, except 38,8000 households, stand electrified as per the standard definition. Governor directed that all works pertaining to electrification of the un-electrified households, categorised under different Centrally Sponsored Schemes, should be prioritized and if need arises, these works should be taken up departmentally to ensure that all these households are electrified before the targeted date of 31^st December, 2018.

Governor directed that the work on smart /pre-paid metering and smart grid projects should be immediately tendered and installation of the envisaged nine lakhs smart pre-paid meters should be completed on priority to reduce the huge AT&C losses, improve collection efficiency and reduce the ACS-ARR gap to meet the targets under the UDAY Scheme.

          Governor directed that the revised estimates of Leh-Nobra Transmission Line, Kargil-Zanskar Transmission Line and LILO at Rajouri- Poonch from 400 KV Samba-Amargarh Line should be immediately firmed up and submitted to the concerned authorities for approval. He directed Chief Secretary to ensure that J&K State Electricity Regulatory Commission is immediately constituted to examine the issues of revision of tariffs and decision on tariff petitions.

 Governor directed that the work should be expedited on all the projects covered under Centrally Sponsored Schemes for their timely completion and directed the Power Development Department to bring all important outstanding issues before the next SAC meeting.

 Chief Secretary emphasised that the targets for electrification of 100% households in the two aspirational districts of Kupwara and Baramulla should be urgently completed, before 15^th August, 2018, on departmental basis. On his suggestion, Governor directed that  an inter departmental Committee comprising Administrative Secretaries of Finance, Power and Planning Development  and Monitoring Department should be immediately set up to prepare a road map to address all financial issues pertaining to power purchase liabilities, tariffs, DPR etc. within 10 days.

Governor directed Financial Commissioner, H&UDD and Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce to ensure immediate delivery of possession of land at Tangpora and Khanyar to PDD to enable erection of Grid Station to improve power supply in Srinagar. He also directed Commissioner Revenue to expedite holding of negotiations for acquiring land at BatporaTeilbal (Srinagar) and Chowadi (Jammu) for this purpose.

Governor stressed close monitoring of all the projects under implementation, particularly Centrally Sponsored Schemes of DDUGJY, IPDS, RGGVY-II and PMDP and directed Chief Secretary to ensure close inter-departmental co-ordination, particularly between Power Development Department and Central PSUs which are implementing agencies, e.g. PGCIL, RECPDCL and RECTPCL, and directed them to complete all these works well before the envisaged time limit of 24 months.