Leh, February 3: With an aim to ensure quality power supply to Ladakh round the year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday dedicated the 220 kV Srinagar-Alusteng-Drass-Kargil–Leh Transmission System to the nation. This step is believed to give a major boost to the tourism sector and enhance socio-economic development of Ladakh. The Prime Minister had laid the foundation stone for this project on 12 August, 2014 and within 4.5 years, the project has been completed by the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID), a Navratna Company of Government of India, under Ministry of Power. Narendra Modi Inaugurates Development Projects in Leh.

According to an official release, the Rs. 2266 crore project will result in minimizing the massive use of diesel generating sets during winters, and thus will help in the protection of the beautiful environment, of pristine Ladakh region. The Srinagar- Alusteng - Drass- Kargil – Leh Transmission Line has been built at a height of around 3000-4000 meters, this approx. 335 km long transmission line has been constructed by POWERGRID.

POWERGRID is one of the World’s Largest Power Transmission Utility, and has a wide network of 150,874 circuit kilometres transmission lines, with 238 Sub-stations and transformation capacity of 351,106 MVA.

In this project, the four new State-of-the-Art 220/66 kV Gas Insulated Sub-stations built at Drass, Kargil, Khaltsi and Leh will help to ensure 24x7 quality power in all weather conditions. The funding provisions have been in the ratio of 95: 05, where 95% is the Govt. of India share and 5% J&K state share).

Benefits of the project:

With quality electricity available at reasonable rates, the hospitality industry in Ladakh will get a major boost, as their reliance on diesel sets will reduce. This will also attract tourists looking for an affordable stay in all weathers.

The implementation of this project was also aimed to supply power to the people of Ladakh in harsh winters and evacuation of surplus power of Kargil & Leh Hydel stations of NHPC in summers. It is a flagship project of Government of India, under PMRP scheme which was aimed to improve reliability & quality of power supply in Ladakh region of J&K by connecting with National Grid.

The project will not only help evacuate power in summers, but will also supply power to the region in winters when temperatures dip and hydroelectricity generation do not match up. The project will meet the power demand of Ladakh region at economical rates.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 03, 2019 05:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).