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| Baglihar Hydel power project's productive life short; generation likely to dip: Report | | Senior Abdullah's controversial 'gift to J&K' | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Oct 6: Jammu and Kashmir government's much-hyped 450 megawatt Baglihar Hydroelectric Project, referred in the present National Conference-led government circles as former Chief Minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah's gift to the state after he returned to power in the year 1996, is not only risk prone and would in the years to come fail to generate even 10 to 20 megawatts of power.
Jammu and Kashmir government claims the project as it own despite the fact that it is being maintained and operated by National Hydroelectric Project Corporation (NHPC). So, are the vehement claims of Jammu and Kashmir government over the controversial Baglihar Hydroelectric Project blatant lies? If the insiders and experts are to be believed, the project is unlikely to benefit the state after the year 2020.
Even at present, despite having been made operational, the project has failed to address power woes of Jammu and Kashmir. It is because of this reason that Jammu and Kashmir continues to face power deficit of around 744 to 750 megawatts. Moreover, official sources have confirmed to early times that the 450 megawatt project has not been able to generate more than 370 megawatts of power.
They said that project's generation capacity is likely to go down in the days ahead. Moreover, a report of International Rivers, an environmental organization has clearly pointed out that the project is going to be a major spoiler in the days ahead.
It has opined that project's useful life would be very short and it would be unable to meet power demands of Jammu and Kashmir in full. The report has accused PDD of double-dealing over the reservoir area for the project activity at full reservoir level. It has said that the area, according to PDD, is approximately 23 x 104 square meters which the report claims is totally wrong and misleading.
Report says that reservoir area, as per official records is 12994.17 Kanals and accordingly, submergence area would be 6.58 million square meters. It maintains that on the contrary, figures quoted by power development department are not only incorrect but far from the actual. .
Report affirms that Baglihar project will require 860 cumecs of water for full activity in the days ahead but Chenab river water discharge decreases much below that level in the winters. The report adds that flow in Chenab reduces up to 50 cumecs in winter season. Moreover, reports points out that authorities are yet to make hydrologic data or the projected power generation from the project public.
Referring to the experience of the existing 690 MW Salal project on Chenab, 480 MW Uri HEP on Jhelum, the reports says that these projects in fact generate much less power in winters when the need for power is maximum in J&K. Hence, report has clearly rebutted claims of Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department with regard to project's availability of addressing J&K's power woes.
The report further maintains that Chenab River is known to be highly silt laden river and there are frequent events of landslides which increase the siltation rate. Construction of so many mega projects on the same river (Salal existing project, Baglihar, Dulhasti are under construction and Sawalakote is already being seriously considered) is also adding to the silt load of the river, the report confirms.
Report affirms that huge silt load of the river means that the projects' useful life will be very short. It has referred to another aspect of the hydroelectric project and said that actual cost of electricity from project is higher than Rs 5 per unit and when the citizens of the Jammu and Kashmir are unable to pay Rs 2 per unit charged currently, how would they purchase power at such a huge cost.
Report has said that the J&K government had attempted to show lower per megawatt cost of the project by clubbing two stages of the project. It has also accused the state of making wrong claims about construction of high voltage transmission lines in inaccessible and high altitude mountain terrains. It has termed the claims as wrong and misleading.
Pointing fingers at the J&K government, the report says that if the state is facing huge power shortages as described by PDD, then why it has been decided to sell 50 percent of the power from the project outside the state. It has further said that since the home state of the project has such a huge power deficit, all the power from the project should be used in the state.
It has said that exporting power in such a situation is inappropriate and would actually add to system losses. The PDD states that the Northern Grid has been considered for the project but at least 50 percent of the power is to go to J&K, more should go considering the power deficit in the state and hence the report has said that it is not right to consider Northern Grid for the project.
The Baglihar project which was commissioned on October 10, 2008 has been in the making for nearly 15 years, including 10 years of construction work. In 1999, the Baglihar project had run into controversy with Pakistan claiming that the project design contravened with some provisions of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960. Bilateral talks failed and Article 9 of the Indus Water Treaty that calls for an independent agency to settle disputes was invoked in January 2005. Last year, the neutral expert, Raymond Lafitte of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, allowed India to proceed with the project. |
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