Will focus on harnessing hydro-power in J&K, says CM Sayeed

“My government will focus on harnessing the full potential of the state in hydropower generation as well as efficiently using its water reserves to irrigate huge tracts of agriculturally-fertile land,” Sayeed said chairing a high level meeting here.

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.

Directing for completion of the project within the stipulated timeframe, the Chief Minister 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 Poonch district in Jammu region.

The chief minister was informed that Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, is holding weekly meetings to resolve the land acquisition issues involved in the project.

A chief engineer has been posted exclusively for the project to coordinate various aspects for its completion without any impediments, an official spokesman said.

He said 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 last year and was also expected to irrigate vast tracts of agricultural land after its completion in 2018.

Earlier, the chief minister chaired another meeting on Shahpur Kandi Dam Project.

Sayeed directed Public Health Engineering and Irrigation and Flood Control Departments to prepare a base paper analysing 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, the spokesman said.

The Rs 2,285-crore Shahpur Kandi project – declared a project of national importance in 2008 ? has been a bone of contention as J&K says there is no agreement under which the project is being built. But Punjab cites an agreement signed in 1979.

J&K claims that all agreements signed by Punjab with other states have become non-existent after Punjab government passed the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act in 2004.

The dam is being built on the border of the two states involving 1,500 acres of land on each side. Punjab claims it paid Rs five crore, the cost of the land, back in 1995. After clearance to the project in 2008 by an empowered group of ministers, Punjab started work in 2013 but stopped work after objections by the state government last year.