Cabinet clears Rs 1,810 cr investment for Himachal hydro facility

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved an investment of Rs 1,810.56 crore for the 210 MW Luhri Stage-1 Hydro Electric Project being developed in Shimla and Kullu districts of Himachal Pradesh.

The project is being executed by the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (SJVNL).

SJVNL Chairman and Managing Director Nand Lal Sharma said the project was initially envisaged as a single stage project, and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Himachal Pradesh government was signed on October 27, 2008.

In March 2015, the state government had advised the SJVNL to review and explore the possibility of executing it as a multi-stage project. Accordingly, the project was redesigned in three stages, i.e., 210 MW and 172 MW Luhri Stage I and II projects and 382 MW Sunni Dam project, and all were reallocated to the company on August 29, 2017.

Sharma said the pacts were signed with the Himachal government during the Rising Himachal Global Investor Meet 2019 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for executing these projects on stand-alone basis.

The 210 MW project is being developed on the Satluj river near Nirath village in Shimla and Kullu districts on build-own-operate-maintain (BOOM) basis.

For enabling the construction of the dam, the flow of the river will be diverted through a 567m long horseshoe shaped diversion tunnel of 10m diameter.

Sharma said the discharge of 644 cumecs would be utilised through four intakes which after traversing four penstocks having 90m length would enter the turbines.

A dam toe powerhouse having two main units of 80 MW and two auxiliary units of 25 MW each is planned on the right bank of the Satluj.

The project will generate 758 million units of energy annually.

Sharma said the SJVNL is committed to complete the project within the timeframe of 62 months.

The hill state will be benefitted from the project with free power of Rs 1,050 crore during the project lifecycle of 40 years.

The families affected by the project will be provided with free 100 units of electricity per month for 10 years. Besides 1 per cent additional Local Area Development Fund that is about Rs 3.08 crore per annum would be used for development of local roads and bridges, healthcare services and other local infrastructure.

The project aims to reduce 6.1 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide from the environment annually. The power generated by the project will help in grid balancing and will also improve the power supply position..