Electricity board loses Kinnaur project to HP Power Transmission Corporation

The state government has taken away the construction work of the 66 Kv transmission line from Pooh to Kaza and a 66 kv sub-station at Samdo in Kinnaur district from HP State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) and handed it over to HP Power Transmission Corporation Limited (HPPTCL). The project is being constructed under the Central Government’s Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme.

The decision has not gone down well with the Joint Front of HPSEBL Employees and Engineers, which has sought the intervention of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu in the matter and a review of the decision.

To begin with, the Rs 362 crore project, which was conceived to provide 24x7 quality power supply in the border areas of Kinnaur, was awarded to the HPSEBL. According to the Joint Front, the groundwork like survey investigation, land acquisition and forest clearances were at an advanced stage and the work on the project would start shortly.

“Handing over the project at an advanced stage to the HPPTCL is neither in the interest of the government nor electricity consumers. It will lead to delay in the execution of the project and increase in power tariffs,” said Lokesh Thakur, convener of the Joint Front.

The government, on the other side, maintains that the work falls within the purview of the HPPTCL, not the HPSEBL. Arindam Chaudhary, Special Secretary (Power), has issued directions for the transfer of all relevant documents of the project to the HPPTCL so that the “latter could take further action in the matter”. He has also mentioned that the Chief Minister had discussed the shifting of the project to the HPPTCL with Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and the “Union Ministry of Power has no objection”.

The Joint Front, however, claimed that the project was within the purview of the electricity board. “The Electricity Act, 2003, gives mandate to a distribution company to construct/ augment its lines/substation irrespective to their voltage when it is embedded with the distribution system or essential for its strengthening. Besides, 66 kv is the declared national distribution voltage and is within the domain of a distribution company,” it said.

The front claimed that if the project was transferred, the HPSEBL would have to pay wheeling charges of Rs 34 paise per unit to the HPPTCL. “This will be passed on to consumers,” claimed HL Verma, co-convener of the front.