IIT Roorkee would conduct environmental assessment

Water and Soil Conservation Authority will be established in the State. Sub Stations of 132 to 400 KV capacity will be set up at Sitarganj, Pithoragarh, Satputli, Roorkee, Dehradun, Haridwar and Srinagar, while, interest would be waived off if the domestic consumers pay their due electricity bills.

 The aforesaid decisions were taken in a review meeting of Energy and Horticulture Departments chaired by Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna at Secretariat on Thursday.

Later talking to the media persons, Chief Minister Bahuguna said that the Water and Soil conservation Authority would undertake rainwater harvesting, prevention of soil erosion and water conservation. Stating that the State was undergoing power crisis, power costing Rs. 193 crore had been purchased so far. He said that owing to silt flow in power stations they were not able to generate power as per their capacity. The State Government was trying to complete non controversial hydro-power projects at the earliest. He revealed that Byasi Project was expected to generate power by 2016 and Lakhwad Project, by 2017. The State would get 420 MW power from these projects, he said. Besides, Maneri Bhali-2, after its capacity augmentation, would generate additional 34 MW power by 2014.

Chief Minister Bahuguna said that IIT Roorkee would conduct environmental assessment of identified small and micro hydro-power projects within coming three months after which tenders would be invited and projects allocated with full transparency, afresh, as per the norms. He said that these projects would expectedly generate 3400 MW power.

Mr. Bahuguna disclosed that payment of Rs. 230 crore from domestic consumers was outstanding for recovery of which camps would be organized. The consumer paying their dues would be exempted from the interest on their dues. He said that decision has been taken to cancel bills that had been raised even after closure of factories or consumers not using the electricity. This amount stood at Rs. 400 crore. The loan of Rs. 435 crore on UPCL would also be converted into equity, he said.

Expressing his resentment on the incidents power thefts, the Chief Minister directed the officers concerned to take stringent action against defaulters. He asked them to lodge FIR against affluent people engaged in power thefts and to take stern action against the respective workers or officers of the department. He stressed on finding measures to reduce loss of electricity incurred through transmission and distribution. He instructed the officers to inform general public about the place and time of roasting through appropriate medium. He also laid emphasis on adopting online system for billing process.

The meeting was attended by Horticulture Minister Amrita Rawat, Advisor State Planning Commission Indu Kumar Pandey, Chairman UJVNL Subhash Kumar, Chief Secretary Alok Kumar Jain, Principal Secretaries Om Prakash, DK Kotia; Secretaries SS Sandhu, Radha Raturi, SS Rawat; Additional Secretaries Dr. Nidhi Pandey, Dilip Jawalkar and other senior officers.