An official communiqué quoting minister of state (independent charges) for power, coal, new and renewable energy Piyush Goyal said the project would thus provide great benefit to a large number of people of the Northeast and Sikkim who were currently not connected to the grid supply in a reliable and secure manner.
A meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the project will be taken up under a new central sector plan scheme of the ministry of power.
He said the project was initially conceived through the Passighat Declaration in 2007, wherein it was decided in the Summit of North Eastern Council to provide adequate transmission network in all the northeastern states and Sikkim so that the development of the region could take place along with rest of the country.
The minister said 134 transmission lines would be constructed to cover 15 districts in Arunachal Pradesh and four districts in Sikkim. Presently, only five districts of 20 are connected to the transmission network at 132/220KV in Arunachal Pradesh. The minister said the project would be implemented under full technical guidance of the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited.
The completion time is 48 months.
After construction, the entire system will be transferred to the state governments for operation and maintenance.
“Both states have hilly and mountainous terrain with large forest area spread widely dispersed and with isolated load centres. The network will help link all the parts of the states to a common grid and provide grid connectivity and reliable power supply to villages. The transmission network would act as a backbone for dispersal of hydro power, which has huge potential in these states,” Goyal added.
Source: The Telegraph
Post a Comment