Srinagar, Oct 18: Power transmission capacity for the Kashmir valley has increased substantially with the commissioning of the 414-km-long Northern Region Strengthening Scheme (NRSS) by Sterlite Power, company officials said Thursday.
The NRSS-29, with a project cost of Rs 3,000 crore, connects the northern grid to Jammu and Kashmir and would enable power transfer of 1,000 MW to the Valley, Sterlite Power CEO Ved Mani Tiwari told reporters here Thursday.
He noted that there was only one line for power transmission line (Kishenpur-Moga transmission line) which connected the Valley with the Northern Grid.
“Now, you have two and the capacity to bring in power has increased 70 percent. So, 70 percent more electricity can be brought to the valley and we have made this possible,” Tiwari said.
“The project was started on August 04, 2014, and we completed it on August 08 this year. So, it has been commissioned two months ahead of the deadline given to us. It was a very challenging project, but it will ensure reliable access to power for the valley,” he said.
Tiwari said the transmission line is 414 km long route-wise and has a length of 880 circuit km, having about 1200 towers – one of them at a height of 13000 feet.
He said about 10,000 people from the state were employed by the company during the peak construction of the project.
Sanjay Johri, COO Sterlite Power, said the company has tied up with a helicopter company to inspect the transmission line in the Valley especially in the winter months when the routes become inaccessible.
The NRSS-29 is one of the largest private sector transmission projects awarded in the country, Tiwari said, adding it is critical for meeting the power requirements of the state, especially Kashmir, which suffers massive load-shedding during winter when electricity demand rises sharply and generation from hydel-power plants dips.
According to Pratik Agarwal, Group CEO, Sterlite Power, the NRSS 29 project fits into the company’s approach to execute projects that would address the toughest challenges of energy delivery.
“We have surmounted numerous challenges to finish this project ahead of schedule and feel very proud of the social impact it will have in the Valley,” he said.
“We are among the handful of global transmission developers with projects worth Rs 268 billion across India and Brazil, solving the toughest challenges of energy delivery,” he said.
The 414 km transmission line which passes through 1000 villages in 11 districts of the region, is expected to augment the state’s power transmission capacity which would bring a significant change in people’s lives.
The new transmission line comes with an advantage as well. Unlike the earlier lines, it can be monitored with the help of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system which would help the officials discover the faults and hence provide speedy renovations, the company informed.
“This system allows us to identify failure easily, monitor it remotely and then send our helicopter teams to rectify it,” Johari said, adding that despite the system, company will also monitor the line once in month as it has tied up with a helicopter company.
These lines are integral part of the State government initiatives towards ensuring adequacy of the system to provide reliable and quality power to the consumers in the State.
Replying to question about “disturbing ecology”, the company said it has worked as per already set norms and parameters so question of disturbing ecology doesn’t arise but the matter is already sub-judicious so it not right time to reveal more.
With regard to compensation, the company officials said that adequate compensation has been provided to the land owners and people who got affected during execution of the project.
