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| Amid menacing power scarcity, admin to close down J&K’s lone power thermal plant | | Built at whooping cost of Rs 224 crores, decision seemingly taken in haste, sans compunction | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 19: Amid the mounting power paucity hitting the normal lives hard in Jammu and Kashmir at large, the administration has taken a shocking decision- to close down a thermal plant with a capacity to generate 175 MW of electricity.
As per the reports coming to the fore, the government is going to shut down the only thermal power plant (gas turbine) built at a cost of Rs 224 crore in Jammu and Kashmir. The thermal plant installed at Pampore in Pulwama district of Kashmir has a total power generation capacity of 175 MW.
For the last few years, electricity was being generated from here only in case of emergency. According to official sources, two gas turbines of the thermal plant were installed at Pampore in 1989. Their total capacity was 75 MW. After this the status of this plant was increased in 1995. Three more gas turbines with a capacity to generate 100 MW of electricity were installed at the plant. Under the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, most of the hydroelectric projects in Jammu and Kashmir are built under the Run the Water scheme, resulting in significantly reduced power generation capacity in cold weather. In such a situation, electricity was supplied through thermal plants.
Raja Yakub Farooq, Managing Director, Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation has confirmed the closure of the thermal plant at Pampore. He said that about Rs 30 per unit of electricity was being produced from this plant, whereas Rs 3 per unit of electricity was being provided in the market. In such a situation, it has been decided to close this plant.
The thermal plant at Pampore is known as Gas Turbine. Diesel is used to run the turbine. Diesel prices have been increasing continuously for some time now and there is no chance of them coming down. In such a situation, the costly production of electricity in the plant was out of the budget of the government.
Meanwhile, at a time when the electricity dearth is taking a heavy toll, this remains to be seen whether such a decision will have a drastic impact on the ground for the power consumers of Jammu and Kashmir. The bearing capacity of the plant was seemingly enough to cater the power demands in the emergency times and closing it down that too when it was built at a whooping cost of Rs 224 crore rupees continues to remain a questionable decision. |
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