'4,459 mu more hydro-power to be generated by next year'

The Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal claimed that 4458.69 Million Units (MUs) additional hydro power would be generated in India by the next year.

In a written reply to a question in the Upper House of Parliament on Monday, the minister informed that state-run hydro power generator, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) is scheduled to generate the additional power from two of its present under construction hydro projects, Parbati-II H.E.P (800 MW) in Himachal Pradesh and Kishanganga H.E.P (330 MW) in Jammu & Kashmir.

Kishanganga H.E.P is scheduled to be commissioned in January and Parbati-II H.E.P is scheduled to be commissioned in October of 2018. Adding further, Goyal stated that, "Presently 41 H.E.P. (above 25 MW), aggregating to 11792.5 MW, are under construction in the country. All the above projects are running behind schedule due to various reasons including natural calamities, geological factors, delays in forest clearances & land acquisition and law & order problems."

NHPC is also working out details for five run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects on the Gori and the Dhauli in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand with a combined power generation capacity of 1,285 mw. The sanctioned projects are Dhauliganga middle, Chungarthal, Garva, Goriganga phase-II and Karmoli Lumti.

Meanwhile, the World Bank also declared on Sunday that, it would continue to be neutral and impartial in helping India and Pakistan find an "amicable way forward" during talks on two of India's hydroelectricity projects in Jammu and Kashmir under the 57-year-old Indus Waters Treaty.

The government at the center also has taken measure to speed up the pending projects and emphasizing on that the minister added, "Central Electricity Authority (CEA) is monitoring the under construction hydro power projects (above 25 MW) in pursuance of Section 73 (f) of Electricity Act, 2003. The progress of each project is monitored continuously through site visits, interaction with the developers and other stake holders. Chairperson, CEA holds review meetings with the Power Projects Monitoring Panel (PPMP) and monitoring divisions of CEA."

The Power Project Monitoring Panel (PPMP) has been set up by the Government of India to monitor the progress of the hydro projects independently. To review the progress of ongoing hydroelectric projects regularly with the concerned officers of CEA, equipment manufacturers, State Utilities or the Central Power Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) or with the project developers.

"In case CPSUs projects, the project 'Implementation parameters' or milestones are incorporated in the annual Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed between respective CPSU's and the ministry and the same are monitored during the quarterly performance review meetings of CPSU's and other meetings held in MoP/ CEA," Goyal added further.