Jammu and Kashmir has potential to provide electricity to country: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir has the potential to produce power for the rest of the country. He said Jammu and Kashmir has many rivers that have potential for electricity generation.

"This state has the potential not only to meet its own requirements, but can also produce power for the rest of the country," the Prime Minister said after inaugurating 330-MW Kishanganga power project in the state.  
 
He said that the government was also making efforts to provide uninterrupted electricity supply to every household in Jammu and Kashmir. "Rs 4,000 crore is being spent on improving the power distribution network in J&K so that every village and town of the state is lit up," the Prime Minister said.
 
Prime Minister Modi further said that the government was not only working on providing electricity to households, but also to ensure power bills do not become a burden on the people.

He referred to the success of Ujala scheme and said that under this scheme the government has provided over 78 lakh LED bulbs that saved electricity to the tune of Rs 400 crore every year.
 
"Electricity connections are being provided free of cost to households in the state that were hitherto not electrified," Modi said.
 
The 330-MW Kishanganga Hydro Electric Project, located in Bandipora District of Jammu and Kashmir, is a run-of-river scheme. It is designed to divert water from the Kishanganga River to a power plant in the Jhelum River basin.
 
The Project began in 2007 and was expected to be completed in 2016, but in 2010, Pakistan moved for international arbitration against India under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty 1960 that regulates the use of waters in the shared rivers.
 
The Hague-based International Court of Arbitration allowed India in 2013 to go ahead with construction of the project and upheld India's right under the bilateral Indus Waters Treaty to divert waters from the Kishanganga for power generation in Jammu and Kashmir.
 
Ministry of Power in a statement said that the Kishangana Project will provide a free power of 13 per cent to the state.  The Project has been proposed to be completed at a cost of Rs 5882 crore.
 
(With inputs from PTI)