Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday inaugurated the first stage of the ambitious Kashang Hydel Project (65 MW) in the tribal Kinnaur district.
The work on 195 MW (65X3) integrated Kashang Project was started in the year 2009 by Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation limited.
Singh said it was one of the projects registered as ‘Green Power Project’ under clean development mechanism. He expressed pleasure over the steps taken for rehabilitation and relief provided to project affected families (PAFs) by HPPCl. He said these families would be provided 100 units free electricity per month once the project was commissioned completely.
MPP and Power Minister, Sujan Singh Pathania said that the state government was giving financial assistance in lieu of forest customary rights for 500 days minimum wages for labour disbursed to 510 affected families amounting to Rs 3.76 crore.
Managing Director HPPCl, Devesh Kumar said rehabilitation and resettlement had been paid upto the tune of Rs 90 lakh in favour of those who lost their land land and Rs 105 lakh to 151 PAFs as compensation on account of cracks in their houses. He said that besides this many community welfare initiatives have been launched by HPPCl.