JK News Today
Jammu, October 15:
Joint Statement of the Hon’ble Minister of Power, Government of India, Sh. RK Singh and Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor of UT of Jammu and Kashmir, Sh. Manoj Sinha on the occasion of the Inauguration of Distribution and Transmission projects in the UT of J&K on 15th October, 2021.
· Hon’ble Union Power Minister reiterated his commitment to providing all possible support to J&K across generation, transmission and distribution sectors in order to make J&K power surplus, remove all supply constraints and provide 24X7 quality power to all citizens of J&K.
· Hon’ble Minister for Power, Government of India & Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor, UT of J&K reemphasized the commitment of the government to provide 24X7 Quality Power Supply across the UT of J&K for improving the ‘Ease of Living of citizens’ and ‘Ease of doing business for the industries’. This would however need to go hand-in-hand with improved recoveries and reduced losses.
· As a first step, J&K DISCOMS would introduce a new arrangement in the coming winter to provide 24X7 power to all feeders with the least losses and where electricity meter coverage is progressively saturated.
· The UT of J&K presented an investment plan of Rs. 12000 Cr by 2025 in transmission and distribution sectors.
· In the transmission sector, a comprehensive Rs 4971 crore investment plan prepared by the JKPDD with the support of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), to be executed in J&K. JKPDD and TRANSCO to form JV with PGCIL and other reputed PSUs.
· Officers were directed to prepare a comprehensive plan for the entire UT for a progressive move towards ‘24 x7 power supply’ including the latent power increase predicted on account of the Industrialization of J&K by conducting area-wise system studies. For this, the Officials were directed to prepare a comprehensive gap analysis and a roadmap including fund requirements for both Transmission and Distribution Sectors. Hon’ble Minister of Power reiterated his commitment of full support to the UT under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme.
· Hon’ble Union Minister complimented UT of J&K for the marked increased in pace of execution of Power Projects including the long-stalled projects.
· Hon’ble Minister and Hon’ble Lt Governor directed that the ambitious project of smart prepaid metering should be scaled up and completed as quickly as possible.
· Hon’ble Minister & Hon’ble Lt Governor reiterated the Government’s commitment towards ‘Green Growth’ and suggested evacuation of Renewable Power, both Solar & Wind from Ladakh, through J&K.
· In order to bring more investments, both for stalled projects as well new projects, Officials were directed to explore various routes like JV’s with CPSU’s as well as Public-Private Partnerships including Tariff Based Competitive Bidding routes.
