JAMMU, Mar 30: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said out of 374 identified project sites with power generation capacity of 1,725.53 MegaWatts, only 10 projects with 79.75 MW capacity had been commissioned with time overrun ranging between four months and seven years.
The hydro power potential of Jammu and Kashmir has been estimated at 20,000 MW which includes 1,500 MW in respect of small hydro projects. As of October 2021, only 2,813.46 MW (16 per cent) of this potential had been harnessed, which included 79.75 MW of small hydro projects.
“The main objective of hydro policy for small hydro project/mini hydro projects for expeditious development of available hydro power of Jammu and Kashmir was not achieved. Out of 374 identified project sites with power generation capacity of 1,725.53 MWs, only 10 projects with capacity of 79.75 MWs (five per cent) had been commissioned with time overrun ranging between four months and over seven years,” the CAG said in its report tabled in the parliament on Tuesday.
The report on compliance audit for the year ended March 31, 2021 said while no action was taken for 225 sites (60 per cent) after their identification, bids were invited for 115 sites (31 per cent) only.
“No response was received for 70 sites and out of 45 sites awarded for development of hydro power projects, 32 IPPs (Independent Power Producers) either failed to fulfil commitments like obtaining statutory clearances for execution of projects or did not deposit upfront premium or the allotment of projects was terminated due to land issues, slow progress and techno economic viability reasons,” the CAG said.
It said for 20 sites proposed under Prime Minister’s Development Package, the Centre had not acceded to the request of the government of J&K for release of funds in view of high project cost and unviable tariff of these 20 projects.
“Nodal agencies did not coordinate with line departments/agencies for facilitating IPPs in obtaining clearances, approvals and finances for their projects in a time bound manner. Execution of projects was also not monitored,” the report said.
It said the IPPs had also attributed poor performance in development of projects inter alia to lack of financing by banks due to non-availability of buy back agreement with the J&K government.
