‘We Are Eliminating The Legacy Of Delays’
Jammu: In a major push to strengthen the power sector in Jammu and Kashmir, the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha on Thursday inaugurated 35 power projects worth Rs 44.14 crore, augmenting the overall capacity in Jammu Division by 367 MVA.
LG also launched several e-Services of the Power Development Department, including the new provision for submitting applications for getting a new electricity connection through online mode. Further, people can avail facilities of online bill payment, online complaint redressal, online security deposit calculation, besides using the online customer portal for their convenience, an official spokesperson said.
Reiterating the UT Government’s mission of eliminating the past practices of delays in execution of projects, he said, the LG stated that the present administration is working on the principle of accountable and responsive governance and is committed to ensuring time-bound completion of developmental projects to ease the life of citizens.
“Decade long overdue upgradation of power infrastructure is being done in a sustained manner. We are eliminating the legacy of delays. Languishing projects hanging for long are being completed in record times,” Sinha said, as per official spokesperson.
“Electricity has been considered as a basic human need and hence it has been given priority in policy making and economy management. In spite of the ever-growing demand for power and availability of immense natural sources for energy generation in J&K, the infrastructure was not augmented in a way commensurate to meeting the demand,” he added.
The LG, as per official spokesperson assured the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir that the administration is continuously working towards their needs and a long-term strategy is being implemented on the ground to ensure 20-22 hours of continuous electricity like other parts of the country.
“The capacity augmentation of the Barn Grid station which is being inaugurated today should have been done in 2012 itself because in the same year it was targeted that the capacity of this grid station would be increased to 480 MVA by installing additional capacity of 160 MVA. Now, this important power project has been completed in record 119 days despite Covid pandemic which has been hanging for 9 years. This project will immensely benefit the remote areas of Poonch, Rajouri, Akhnoor, Jourian, Reasi and the adjoining areas of Jammu,” Sinha said.
“These are the reforms the UT Government has brought in the work culture in J&K. I would like to congratulate all the officers and engineers of the Power Department for this,” he added.
Citing the example of Sawalkot project which was planned to be built in 1984 and was expected to generate 1856 MW of electricity, the LG said that it also remained like a dream.
“This project was hanging for 36 years, which has been given the green signal this year,” he said, adding “I am deeply grateful to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, whose priority is to make the lives of the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir better,”
Outlining the efforts made by the government to meet the aspirations of the people, the LG, as per official spokesperson said that during the last 11 months, we have made groundbreaking reforms to fulfill the expectations of the people with full zeal.
“Moving away from the old system, we have executed 35 power projects today, which also include many transmission and distribution projects, thus strengthening the system and management capacity of the entire Jammu division,” Sinha said.
“There is no shortage of hydro resources in Jammu and Kashmir. We have a generation capacity of 14,867 MW of electricity, but in the last 70 years we were able to generate only 3504 MW. With our determined efforts, we will be able to generate additional power of 3498 MW in the next 4-5 years. With the rapid pace of development, where it took us 70 years to reach, we will reach there in just 5 years,” he added.
According to the official spokesperson, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, speaking on the occasion complimented the department on completion of the new projects. He called upon the officers to move towards digital platforms for efficient service delivery, besides making objective efforts to achieve better demand side management.
“Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department gave a detailed briefing about the newly inaugurated power projects and new e-services of the Power department. He outlined broad reforms and steps being undertaken by the department to upgrade the power infrastructure in the region,” he said.
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