By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 3 Jan: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, while chairing a review meeting of the Energy Department at the Secretariat here, today, directed the officials to work expeditiously in the field alternative energy in the state. He observed that the officials of the power department should remain aware that there will be a rapid increase in investment in the state and in order to actualise this, there is a need to speed up ongoing projects in the power sector.
The CM noted that more efforts are needed to implement power projects. Efforts should be made to ensure that these are completed within the stipulated time period. If any problems are being faced anywhere, the government should be informed and these would be solved appropriately.
The CM added that a detailed proposal should be prepared for energy related proposals on which necessary action is to be taken from the level of the Union Government.
During the review, Dhami also stated that production in hydro and solar energy should be increased rapidly. The surplus land of UJVNL should be used on priority basis for tourism-based activities and to harness solar energy. The grounding of projects for which investment agreements have been signed in the Investors Summit should be done soon. The Chief Minister also gave instructions to work expeditiously on the Lakhwad and Kishau multipurpose projects. The He directed that digital payments should be promoted rapidly. Continuous efforts should be made to increase revenue. He asked PTCUL to pay greater attention to strengthening the power transmission system and effective implementation of short, medium and long term plans.
It was stated at the meeting that, currently, hydro and solar energy production is 7,513 million units, and the target is to increase it to 18,740 million units by 2031. A total of 3 solar power projects will be commissioned from 2024 with a capacity of 17 MW. A total of 6 projects worth a capacity of 29.25 MW will be commissioned by October 2025. By the year 2026, a 5.5 MW project, a 18 MW plant in Kapkot and 11.5 MW Shama village solar power project near Bageshwar are targeted to be started.
It was also shared at the meeting that, till now, grounding of power projects worth Rs 21,520 crore has been done. These include hydro power projects worth Rs 6,780 crore, pumped storage projects worth Rs 14,670 crore and solar based projects worth Rs 70 crores. The grounding process for hydropower, pumped storage, solar based and other projects signed during the Global Investors Summit worth Rs 54,977 crore is in progress
On this occasion, a presentation was also given about the RMU of Tiloth Power House (Maneri Bhali First Phase). Research and development work is being done by UJVNL with IIT Roorkee for Hydro Kinetic Turbine as an innovation. In the first phase, a one megawatt capacity plant is being set up in Pathri Mohammadpur for green hydrogen. On the basis of “Zero Investment/Expense Model”, the process of selling the projects energised after January 1, 2026 by registering them in the Greenhouse Mitigation Programme of the Global Carbon Council and issuing ‘Carbon Credit’ is in progress.
On this occasion, Vice Chairman, Infrastructure Monitoring Committee, Vishwas Dawar, Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi, Secretary R Meenakshi Sundaram, MD, UJVNL, Sandeep Singhal, MD, UPCL, Anil Kumar, MD, PTCUL, PC Dhyani were also present.
