Akshay Azad
Early Times Report
jammu, July 25: The Jammu and Kashmir has vast power potential and is contributing abundantly in hydro power generation of the country but the flip side is that this rich state has also the highest power deficit across the country and the difference with rest of states is very wide.
With power still paying hide and seek with Jammuites, there seems no relief in the next few years due to dearth of any concrete plan of state government to narrow down the gap in demand and supply, except seasonal rhetoric over return of power projects.
As per the data of power supply position for the month of April to June 2016, the requirement of power for Jammu and Kashmir was 4403 Megawatts and available power was 3600 MWs and power deficit was of 803 MWs which was 18.2 percent.
The states including Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Gujrat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odissa, Sikkim had zero percent of power deficit.
While as Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, Chattisgarh, , Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand, West Bengal, had power deficit less than 1 percent.
The Jammu and Kashmir is followed by some of north eastern states but they too have very less power deficit with Arunachal Pradesh having 3.0 percent, Assam 5.8 percent and Manipur having 4.7 percent of deficit in power requirement and availability.
The Jammu and Kashmir has been contributing a lot in hydro power generation as National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) has total production of 4961.20 MWs out of which, it has been generating nearly 50 percent that is 2009 MW's from Jammu and Kashmir.
J&K has total hydro potential of nearly 20,000 MWs out of which 3220.96 MWs has been tapped so far including 2009 by NHPC and 1211.96 MWs by JK Power Development Corporation (JKPDC).
"It is very unfortunate that either of Kashmir centric parties have been raising voice for return of power projects but none of them or Jammu based parties have been advocating for filling the wide gap between requirement and availability of power", an official of JKPDC lamented, adding that during every season Jammu as well as Kashmiri populace face difficulties due to unscheduled power curtailments and it was only due to wide gap in deficit percentage.
He further said that if the deficit percentage would be reduced below one percent the problem of curtailments would be solved to a greater extent but none of political party has been serious about the issue so far. |
