Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 19: The previous PDP-BJP government of J&K had misled people of Ladakh in the name of mega solar power project in the cold desert. In the year 2016, the then PDP-BJP government had claimed that work on 7000 MW mega solar project in Ladakh was started and it will be completed very soon. The coalition government had promised that with this project, power scenario in the mountainous region would be improved and power generated from this project would be supplied to other areas also.
On Thursday, during a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of New and Renewable Energy R K Singh made it clear that no such project was sanctioned in 2014 by the Union Government.
He, however, said that Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) issued a tender for development of 7500 MW Solar PV Projects in Leh and Kargil districts on 31.12.2018.
Interestingly, there was Governor’s rule in the State when tender for this project was floated but the previous PDP-BJP regime had claimed that work on this project has already been started.
The Minister said that site visits are required to be undertaken by prospective bidders and same would be taken up after melting of snow and gaining accessibility to the sites.
“Based on inputs from the prospective bidders, further tendering activities would be taken up. The last date of bid submission is 30.04.2020. As per the tender documents, implementation time for the
project is 48 months from effective date of Power Purchase Agreement. This apart, two Solar plants of 7 MW capacity with 21 MWh Battery Energy Storage Systems, will be set up one each in Leh and Kargil”, he said. |
