Punjab Power Minister and New and Renewable Energy Sources Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar on Sunday said that the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s persevering efforts to bring the Water Resources Ministry of the Central Government and Jammu and Kashmir’s State Government on board has borne fruit leading to the signing of a historic agreement to restart work on the Shahpur Kandi project.
At the same time, Kangar also congratulated all Punjabis on this momentous achievement that would herald a new era of prosperity.
As per the agreement, signed by the Chief Secretaries of the states of Punjab and J&K and Indian Commissioner of Indus Waters in the presence of J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik and Punjab’s Water Resources Minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, the project would be completed within three years.
Kangar expressed gratitude on the behalf of people of Punjab to the Chief Minister for pursuing the matter aggressively with the Central Government over the past several months and seeking personal intervention of the Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari for early Resolution of all issues relating to this project.
The Shahpur Kandi Dam, an inter-state project, was approved by the Central Government as a ‘national project’ in February 2008 at a cost of Rs 2,285.81 crore, including the irrigation component of Rs 653.97 crore.
“Though the work on the project started in 2013, it was halted in 2014 due to certain observations raised by the J&K government. In the meantime, cost estimate has been revised to Rs 2,793.54 crore and Punjab Government has requested the Centre for inclusion of the project in the prioritized list of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) or Accelerated Irrigation Benefit (AIBP) Projects,” said Kangar.
He said that the Shahpur Kandi Power Plant project is as vital as Bhakra Dam Project and Ranjit Sagar Dam Project are to the state. “It will provide balancing reservoir to enable the upstream Ranjit Sagar Dam Project power station to act as a peaking station, besides having its own generation capacity of 206 MW and irrigation benefit of 37,173-hectare Cultivable Command Area to Punjab and J&K states. It will enable the country to fully utilize the Ravi water as per the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan,” he said.
Presently, though installed capacity of Ranjit Sagar Dam is 600 MW (4X150 MW), but at maximum, only 300 MW is generated as the canal system of UBDC project cannot handle more flow and the more than 300 MW water goes waste to Pakistan.
“With the construction of Shahpur Kandi Dam, a gross storage capacity of 12,071 hectare meter would be provided, and it would be possible to run all four machines of Ranjit Sagar Dam’s unit at 600 MW for about eight hours without letting any water downstream Shahpur Kandi dam,” he said.
Kangar also added that with the commissioning of Shahpur Kandi dam, 834 MUs from Shahpur Kandi Power Plant and 348 MUs additional generation from UBDC, that is total 1182 MUs of additional green power would be added to Punjab.
, additional Ranjjit Sagar Dam generation during peak hours to the tune of 350 MUs of green power would be available to shore up the state power utility’s, PSPCL finances as peak load power is the costliest power and is very easy to sell,” he added.
Punjab State Power Corporation Limited’s (PSPCL) chairman-cum-managing director Baldev Singh Sran also expressed gratitude to the Chief Minister for “statesman like visionary guidance to make this historic agreement possible”.
