Shimla, September 1
Nathpa Jhakri Power Corporation has declared its 700 employees surplus and has asked the Himachal Pradesh Government to repatriate the officials of the HPSEB who were on deputation with it. The NJPC has also offered voluntary retirement scheme to its own employees as it requires only 858 officials at the Nathpa Jhakri (1500 mw) project.
The Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the NHPC and the NJPC, Mr Yogendera Prasad, stated this to newsmen here today.
He said the surplus staff included engineers and clerks. The NJPC was not in a position to retain the surplus staff any more as this would further escalate the cost of the project and also the generation.
He said he had already discussed the issue with the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal.
Mr Yogendera Prasad said 96 per cent of the total expenditure at present was being made on the establishment of the project, while only 4 per cent was left for other works.
He said with a financial crisis in the state, Mr Dhumal had asked the NJPC to return the equity of Rs 528 crore which Himachal Pradesh had so far invested in the joint venture project. The state government had not paid its equity of Rs 300 crore which was pending since the last year.
He said by the time the project was completed, the total equity of the state would become about Rs 1100 crore. The state which had equity participation of 25 per cent in the mega project would lose its share in case it was unable to release further payment of its equity.
He said he had asked the Centre to fully probe the facts which had resulted in cost escalation of the 1500 mw Nathpa project so that it could become an eye opener for the future managements. There should be some mechanism for monitoring the projects regularly.
He said the project was suffering
a loss of Rs 5 crore a day because of various hurdles which had come in its way. Delay in taking decisions regarding the execution of various stages of the project could have been the main cause for the cost overruns. He was, however, confident that at least two units to generate 500 mw would be commissioned by December 2002.
Mr Yogendera Prasad said the additional cost of raising the height of the dam by five metres and diverting the tail race of the Bhabha electric project to prevent it from being submerged would be Rs 32.5 crore. This would yield an excess revenue of Rs 79 crore annually to the Himachal Pradesh Government and Rs 154 crore to the Centre.
He said the decision on raising the height of the dam had not yet been finalised.
Mr Yogendera Prasad said he had offered to construct the Rampur Project (800 MWs) by the NJPC alone without any equity participation of the state government in case the latter was not in a position to invest the amount.
He said the NHPC would explore the hot springs at Manikaran for constructing a geo-thermal electric project on experimental basis.
The work on the Hibra III project would be speeded up next year and Rs 280 crore had been allocated for the Parbati (2100 mw) for the current year.
He said the NHPC would commission the Dul Hasti project in the Kishtwar area of Jammu by 2003. Work on the project started in 1980, but it got delayed because of terrorism in the area. A ventilator had also to be excavated from the top in the nearly 10 km-long head race tunnel of the project.
The NHPC proposed to execute projects to generate 5400 mw of electricity in the 10th Plan, 11000 mw in 11th Plan and 13500 mw during the 12th Plan.
