Messed up
Winter is round the corner and people in Kashmir valley have started to witness power curtailments for hours together. Both metered and non metered areas in the city as well as rural areas have been reporting power curtailments even though no formal curtailment schedule has been announced by the power development department (PDD.Power crisis during the winters in Kashmir valley is nothing new. This has been a routine which the people have been witnessing and they have more or less accepted to live with the situation. But what concerns a common man is the inability of the government and its planners to harness the resources that the state has to generate power that will in the end help its consumers and the common man in particular.
Kashmir is having abundant water resources which can play a key role in industrialization and modernization of various sectors. The potential to harness the water resource holds the key to the state’s growth.
However, in spite of a great potential capacity, only a limited percentage of water resources are utilized for the generation of hydel power in Kashmir valley. Though some growth in power installation and generation has shown an increase from a negligible base of 3 megawatts to 4 megawatts in 1950-51 to 151.60 megawatts (it is in addition to 430 megawatts of Uri Hydel Power Project which is under central government feeding power to North Grid). Other important projects are Lower Jhelum (105 MW), Upper Sindh (22.6 MW), Ganderbal (15 MW) and Mohra (9 MW).
Kashmir has enormous potential of hydel power, which however, has not been developed to its optimum. The projects so far commissioned have a generating potentiality of 151.60 MW, the projects under investigation have a huge potentiality of 1246 MW, and furthermore, the projects which have been identified but not yet investigated have a potentiality of 1250 MW.
Take for an example the Southern district of Anantnag. The district has one of the fast flowing rivers, Lidder running through it, however, no power house has been designed to capitalize on the fast flowing Lidder. Though some awakening has now taken place, the government has announced various small power projects like Chandanwari (50 MW), Laripora (22 MW), Bawan (20 MW), Pahalgam (3 MW) and Batakote (23MW).
In addition to this, government has also planned many other schemes like Brinji Hydel Scheme (7 MW) on Brinji Nallah, Kandia Hydel Scheme ( 72 MW) on Kandia Nallah, and Vishav Hydel Scheme( 65 MW) at Aharbal in Kulgam.
But what remains to be seen is the policy adopted by the government functionaries while arranging customers for the power generated in the state. We have presently three government bodies to manage the affairs of the power department.
The Power Development Department (PDD), Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC) and Jammu and Kashmir State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC).
However, all these lack coordination in some areas that cannot be called healthy by any stretch of imagination. Baglihar Hydroelectric Project’s Stage-II with an installed capacity of 450 Mega Watts was taken up for execution by the Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation as was approved by the State in March, 2012.
However, the crisis of power curtailments has had no effect with the commissioning of the power project. Instead, Kashmir has been witnessing a much harsh curtailments and tall promises, which fade away with the passage of time.
KV Network
