LEH: The government on Wednesday approved construction of a 713-km transmission line with an investment of Rs 20,773 crore to power electricity from a 13 gigawatt (GW) solar and 12 GW-hour battery storage project, which would be built Ladakhfirst reported by TOI on January 13, 2019.
As per the decision of the Cabinet Panel on Economic Affairs, the Center will provide viability gap financing worth Rs 8,309 crore, or 40% of the project cost, to keep transmission tariffs affordable.
The approval also includes construction of an interconnection link for feeding power from the project to the power grid in Leh. The project, which will be built in Pang, a vast, windswept plateau 174 km southeast of Ladakh’s capital Leh along the road to Manali, will also be connected to the Leh-Kargil-Alusteng-Srinagar line to Kargil and Jammu & powering Kashmir.
The high-voltage direct current line has been given the status of a ‘national project’ and a state transmission company Power grid has been commissioned to build it without bids. The 5 GW interconnection will be connected to the national grid at Kaithal, 186 km north of Delhi, in Haryana, after crossing Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.
The transmission line would be a global engineering marvel because it would have to be built over stratospheric mountains and would test the limits of endurance of both man and machine due to the thin atmosphere and extreme weather that fluctuates between 40 degrees and summer and minus 40 degrees. combined with the feeling of temperature during the long winter.
Addressing the nation over the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which made Ladakh a federal territory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on August 8, 2019, flagged projects to tap the potential of solar energy as a key growth engine for the region . In his Independence Day speech next year, he announced the construction of a 7.5 GW solar farm in Ladakh, which has now been scaled up.
The original plan was to build a 5 GW solar project in Nyoma, close to the LAC, and another 2.5 GW plant in Kargil. But the plan for Nyoma fell foul of the wildlife department and the project was moved to Pang with a larger capacity. The Kargil project got a boost due to its difficult geography.
In its current form, the Pang project will help achieve the target of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel generation capacity by 2030. The project will generate major direct and indirect employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled personnel in the energy sector and other related fields.
As per the decision of the Cabinet Panel on Economic Affairs, the Center will provide viability gap financing worth Rs 8,309 crore, or 40% of the project cost, to keep transmission tariffs affordable.
The approval also includes construction of an interconnection link for feeding power from the project to the power grid in Leh. The project, which will be built in Pang, a vast, windswept plateau 174 km southeast of Ladakh’s capital Leh along the road to Manali, will also be connected to the Leh-Kargil-Alusteng-Srinagar line to Kargil and Jammu & powering Kashmir.
The high-voltage direct current line has been given the status of a ‘national project’ and a state transmission company Power grid has been commissioned to build it without bids. The 5 GW interconnection will be connected to the national grid at Kaithal, 186 km north of Delhi, in Haryana, after crossing Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.
The transmission line would be a global engineering marvel because it would have to be built over stratospheric mountains and would test the limits of endurance of both man and machine due to the thin atmosphere and extreme weather that fluctuates between 40 degrees and summer and minus 40 degrees. combined with the feeling of temperature during the long winter.
Addressing the nation over the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which made Ladakh a federal territory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on August 8, 2019, flagged projects to tap the potential of solar energy as a key growth engine for the region . In his Independence Day speech next year, he announced the construction of a 7.5 GW solar farm in Ladakh, which has now been scaled up.
The original plan was to build a 5 GW solar project in Nyoma, close to the LAC, and another 2.5 GW plant in Kargil. But the plan for Nyoma fell foul of the wildlife department and the project was moved to Pang with a larger capacity. The Kargil project got a boost due to its difficult geography.
In its current form, the Pang project will help achieve the target of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel generation capacity by 2030. The project will generate major direct and indirect employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled personnel in the energy sector and other related fields.
ADVERTISEMENT
