SRINAGAR: Three years after its sanctioning, work on a 10 Mega Volt Ampere (MVA) receiving station at Kadalbal Pampore town of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district is still incomplete. The town continues to reel under frequent power cuts.
Given its demand in supply and frequent power cuts, the receiving station was sanctioned under Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP). The work is being executed by a New Delhi based firm, Krishna Electric Industries (KEI).
Soon after its sanctioning, the KEI started to work on the project Municipal Committee Pampore raised objections, maintaining that the piece of land belonged to them.
“To begin with they objected to giving away the land and then subsequently wanted compensation for some fencing they had managed to construct around the land,” a source in PDD said, adding that it took authorities more than a year to sort out the differences between the two departments.
Besides, the sources said, that the civil society in Pampore played an active and crucial role in getting the departments to resolve their differences and bring them on the same page.
The work was started again in the summer of 2019 but put to a halt after August 5, abrogation of article-370 and then the COVID-19 lockdown.
“We hoped that the project would bring some respite to the heavy curtailment of power supply we have been facing for years now. Things, however, look bleak and it might be another year before the project is actually up and running,” the residents lamented.
A senior official in PDD said that despite all the hindrances more than 70 percent of the work has already been carried out on the project. “I hope the project will meet its deadline and will be completed on time.” Notably, the deadline is March 2021.
