MUMBAI: The government is planning to revive stalled power projects and build new infrastructure for electricity distribution in frontier regions like Jammu & Kashmir, which is in the midst of assembly elections, and also in the North East.
Power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal told ET that the long-delayed Teesta Hydropower project in Sikkim, where over Rs 8,000 crore of private and public money is invested, will be resuscitated and the Subansiri Hydropower project in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, which is among the largest projects of the National Hydroelectric Power Company (NHPC), will also be revived.
Goyal had earlier said that the government plans to build new power transmission infrastructure in Leh, Kargil and Srinagar, and will soon inaugurate the first power evacuation transmission line that connects Leh to Srinagar via Kargil.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Kargil in August had dedicated the 44 MW Chatuk hydropower project, a run-of-theriver project built on the Suru river in Kargil. "Our government is committed to bringing prosperity to the great state of Jammu & Kashmir, especially as the prime minister himself is very concerned about development issues in J&K. That is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently went to Kargil and has been to J&K once every month in the last six months," said Goyal.
Piyush Goyal said power production should soon start in the Teesta hydropower project. "I have just resolved all issues pertaining to the Teesta hydropower project in Assam... a lot of public and private money was stuck in this project... most of those issues have been resolved and power production should start soon," Goyal said.
"This is part of the government's larger initiative to make sure the people of the North East, who have been traditionally ignored by the central government and given a step-child treatment, should feel like they are an important part of the Indian polity and we are going to make sure this region is firmly on our development agenda," the minister added.
Source:Economic times
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