 Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, May 6: Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today said his Government will focus on harnessing the full potential of J&K in hydropower generation as well as efficiently using its water reserves to irrigate huge tracts of agriculturally-fertile land.
He said the people are the principal beneficiaries, who expect that all developmental projects taken up by the Government are completed within the stipulated timelines. Mufti Sayeed was speaking during a high-level meeting, called to review the pace of work on the Parnai Hydro-Electric Project (HEP), here today. Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Nirmal Singh, who also holds the charge of Power Development Department (PDD), Minister for Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs, Syed Basharat Bukhari, Minister for PHE, I&FC, Sukhnandan Kumar, Minister of State for Power, I&C and H&UDD, Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Chief Secretary, Iqbal Khandey, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas, Principal Secretary, PDD, Sandeep Nayak and Secretary, PHE, I&FC, Pervez Malik participated in the meeting.
Directing J&K SPDC to speed up and complete the project within the stipulated timeframe, the Chief Minister asked the executing company to expedite work by mobilizing men and machinery at the project sites. He said the Parnai HEP has been conceived as a multi-purpose project, keeping in mind its potential to augment both the power and irrigation-related needs of the district.
Principal Secretary, Power, while briefing the Chief Minister, said the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, is holding weekly meetings to resolve the land acquisition issues involved in the project. He also added that a dedicated Chief Engineer in J&K SPDC has been posted exclusively for Parnai Project so as to coordinate various aspects for its completion without any impediments.
It was given out in the meeting that Patel Engineering Limited, the project-executing company, has been asked to accelerate the construction work by deploying required machines and manpower at all the sites.
The work on the Parnai Project, which is a Run-of-the-River (RoR) Scheme with installed capacity of 37.5 MW, began in April 2014. It is also expected to irrigate vast tracts of agricultural land after its completion in 2018. The work for execution of the project was awarded to M/S Patel Engineering Limited by J&K SPDC in 2014 on EPC mode. Earlier, the Chief Minister, while chairing another meeting on Shahpur Kandi Dam Project, directed PHE, I&FC Department to prepare a base paper analyzing the factual aspects and to present various options available before the Government so that an immediate decision is taken on the project, keeping in view the interests of the State's farming community. |
