Larji project suffers generation loss
Kuldeep Chauhan
Tribune News Service

Larji (Mandi), July 24
The HP State Electricity board-run 126 mw Larji power project here has suffered a generation loss of 6.26 lakh units of electricity worth Rs 20 lakh this month as the power house had already been shutdown twice within 10 days as trash and silt continued to flow into the Larji barrage.

According to engineers, trash ended up in the Larji barrage after being dumped in the Beas in tourist places like Rohtang Pass, Kullu, Bhuntar and Aut. On the other hand, silt continued to flow into the Sainj, a tributary of the Beas which met at Larji, as the NHPC, executing the Parbati-II project on the Sainj, failed to arrest the flow of silt.

Though the project engineers have no knowledge of the exact quantity of trash flushed out this month, but they claimed that it was quite less because of deficient rains.

Logs, bushes, waste plastic bottles flooded into the barrage, that resulted in shutting down of power for an hour which led a generation loss of over 1.26 lakh units of electricity on Wednesday. The generation was restored after the waste material was flushed out from the barrage, engineers claimed.

The power was shut down earlier on July 13 from 1 am to 5 am that resulted in generation loss of 5 lakh units of electricity, claimed project engineers. A lot of silt flowed from the Sainj into the barrage after it rained upstream that day, they added.

Kullu Deputy Commissioner BM Nanta said the administration were making extra efforts, in coordination with municipal council, Kullu-Bhuntar, nagar panchayat, special area development authority, Manali, to collect the trash from tourist spots.

“We have involved mahila mandals in the waste collection and expect that trash will not be allowed to be dumped into the Beas. We have also warned resort and dhabha owners along the river about the same,” he said.