Kinnaur project unit-1 functional

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 28

Minister for Multi-purpose projects (MPP) and Power Sujan Singh Pathania today congratulated HP Power Corporation Ltd (HPPCL) engineers on the commissioning of the first generating unit of the 65 mw Kashang power project stage-I in Kinnaur.

The project is expected to generate 35 crore units of electricity annually that will give about Rs 110-crore income, he added.

He said this project had the most difficult logistics and approaches with intake works located at an elevation of 2826 m, making it one of the highest constructed intake structures for a major project in the state.

The second unit was expected to be commissioned in July, he added.

He said the HPCL gave the benefits of Rs 3.76 crore in lieu of Forest Customary Rights for 500 days minimum wages to the project-affected families, Rs 7.06 crore under the Local Area Development Fund (LADF), plots and gave training and merit and sports scholarships, upgraded skills and provided pipeline for drinking water supply to the families.

He said each family would be provided 100 units of electricity per month for 10 years. In addition, 1 per cent of revenue from power generation would be contributed towards LADF during the operation stage.

Pathania has also shown his concern over the continuing labour unrest in the Shongtong Karcham project (450MW) which is expected to generate about 158 crore units of electricity. Once commissioned, this project will accrue a revenue of about Rs 630 crore annually to the state.

DK Sharma, Managing Director, said the HPPCL had executed the work of Kashang project at a place where out of the 133 sq. km catchment area ,96 sq km is under glaciers and permanent snow zone.

Heavy snowfall, chilling sub-zero temperatures, road damages due to landslides were the major challenges which had been tackled by HPPCL engineers to execute this project.