Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) headed by PM Modi, approved to invest Rs. 1,810 crore in Luhri stage-1 hydropower project, in state of Himachal Pradesh.
Luhri stage-1 is 210 Mega Watt (MW) project, which will generate 782.20 units of electricity annually.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between government of India and state of Himachal Pradesh was signed in November 2019, and funding has been approved on Wednesday i.e. 4th November 2020.
This project will generate cleaner energy, reducing carbon-di-oxide emissions by 6.1 lakh tonnes annually, and additional free electricity worth Rs. 1,140 crore throughout its 40 years life cycle of hydro power plant.
Prakash Javadekar, Information and broadcasting minister in a press conference said, the project will be implemented by Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVNL) on Build-Own-Operate-Maintain (BOOM) basis, it will be backed by respective state and central government, and the total time estimated for completion of project is 62 months.
Central government will provide grants of Rs. 66.19 crore for enabling infrastructure which has helped in reducing power tariffs.
The construction of project will generate 2000 jobs, and the families effected from project will be allotted free electricity of 100 units every month for 10 years, from the date of implementation of project.
Nand Lal Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director, SJVNL said that the project was supposed to a single phase project as per MOU signed in 2008, which upon revision by SJVNL in 2015, was redesigned into three stages, 210 MW Luhri-1, 172 MW Luhri-2 and 382 MW Sunni Dam Project, and MOU for Luhri-1 was signed in 2019 to be executed on stand-alone basis.