Srinagar, Feb 10 : Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu on Friday said the Jammu and Kashmir government is holding hectic parleys with the GOI over the return of atleast two power projects from the power giant NHPC to the state government.
Drabu while talking to KNS that the chief minister Mehbooba Mufti during her recent visit to New Delhi raised the issue with the Prime Minister and that the state government is optimistic of a serious breakthrough soon.
Without divulging further details, Drabu said hopes could be raised over the return of atleast two power projects from the NHPC to the state government. “We (state government) has been very much involved in the entire process and we are working on the modalities that could pave way for making it happen,” Drabu told KNS.
Finance Minister, who presented the state budget during the recently concluded budget session said the Jammu and Kashmir’s chief minister Mehbooba Mufti is rigorously pursuing the matter with the GOI and her recent meeting with the Prime Minister has been ‘fruitful’. When asked whether the royalties between NHPC and the state government would be reframed too, Drabu said government’s prime focus at present is about the return of the power projects and it is working on this direction only for now. “I cannot give you the exact date when projects would be returned but I can give you assurance that the matter is seriously being discussed and it will yield the desired results for the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Finance Minister said.
Pertinently, the NHPC, between 2001-2015, has earned at least Rs 194 billion (Rs 19,431 Crores) from the sale of power generated by the hydel projects based in J&K.Of this, J&K Government had paid Rs 41 billion (Rs 4,129 Crores) to NHPC to buy 19.7% of the power that was generated by the hydel projects situated in the State.
The NHPC is running seven hydroelectric power projects in the J&K which include Salal, Uri-I, Dulhasti, Sewa-II, Uri-II, Chutak and Nimmo Bazgo. Official documents reveal that NHPC has generated 1, 15,636 million units of power from these projects from 2001 to March 2016.The NHPC data reveals that Salal has generated saleable energy 2973.54 MU in 2014-2015 and earned a profit of Rs 302.31 crore by selling power to different utilities in the country. Uri-I has generated 2635.70 MU saleable energy, with a profit of Rs 417.87 crore in 2014-15.Dulhasti has generated saleable energy of 1850.94 MU in 2014-15 with a profit of Rs 1068.19 crore.Sewa-II has generated 479.60 saleable energy with a profit of Rs 221.26 crore.Uri-II has generated saleable energy of 1008.87 MU with a profit of Rs 467.52 crore, Chutak have generated 158.76 MU with a profit of Rs 132.41 crore and Nimmo Bazgo has generated saleable energy of 194.25 MU with a profit of Rs 175.45 crore respectively.Seven hydel projects were handed over to the NHPC for funding, execution and operation over a period of 10 years under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the J&K Government and GoI. (KNS)