Power transmission via Rohtang tunnel on cards
Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 24
The transmission of power from the hydel projects located in the Chandrabhaga basin will be undertaken through the 9-km-long Rohtang tunnel, thereby reducing the total cost of transmission by several crores.

The state government has already held talks with the Rohtang tunnel authorities to allow the transmission of power through the Rohtnag tunnel by way of gas-filled cables. In case the proposal comes through, it will be for the first time anywhere in the state that power transmission will take place through gas-filled cables.

“We have already held talks with the Rohtang tunnel authorities to allow the transmission of power through the tunnel which will help save several crores,” said Deepak Sanan, Principal Secretary, Power. He added that though the cost of power transmission through gas-filled cables would work out to be pretty high, even then it would work out to be cheaper than the estimated Rs 2,000 crore that would have been the cost of laying transmission lines.

It is expected that the proposal would get the nod of the tunnel authorities even though some charges would have to be paid for using the tunnel for power transmission. However, the expenditure for it would be borne by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL).

According to the transmission plan prepared by the State Power Transmission Corporation, power from the Chandrabhaga basin will be routed through two channels. One will be from the power projects in the area to Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir as it is located very close to the Himachal boundary. The other route would be the one from Rohtang to Kullu and beyond into Hamirpur.

Sanan said the effort was to create linkages with the inter-state transmission lines so that the cost of transmission did not work out to be very high. “It is with this very objective that the Power Transmission Corporation has started the process of preparing sub-basin transmission plans so that there can be proper planning before investing huge sums in laying transmission lines as per the expected generation from that area,” he explained.

He said the Power Transmission Corporation had just completed the Kangra sub-basin plan, which covered the entire region, including Palampur, Baijnath, Uhl, Shahpur, Nurpur and the Chowari area. The expected power from this region had been assessed at 71 MW and the existing Dehan to Bassi line would be more than sufficient to transmit this much power.

The Power Transmission Corporation would start work on the Kullu basin on January 28 above Pandoh to assess the total potential in the area and the existing transmission system. Similarly, the transmission of power from the Yamuna basin with an expected capacity of 400 MW would be done through the 32-km-long Hatkoti-Sainj-Pragatinagar-Abdullapur route rather than the 300-km-long Paonta Sahib-Nalagarh line.