The Administrative Council (AC), which met here under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, approved the proposal for assignment and restoration of earlier mandate of Jammu and Kashmir Energy Development Agency (JAKEDA) of development of Hydro-electricity Projects upto 10 MW capacity and designating Science and Technology Department as Nodal Department for development of Renewable Sources of Energy including-Solar, Wind and Biomass in Jammu and Kashmir.
Farooq Khan and Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisors to the Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, J&K and Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor attended the meeting.
With the aim to offer clean, environment-friendly, abundant and inexhaustible energy source from Small Hydro-Projects in remote as well as isolated areas, it has been decided to enhance the mandate of JAKEDA from 2MW upto 10 MW in Small Hydro-Projects and Solar Projects. Besides, foussed attention on Small Hydro-Projects will also provide indirect employment/entrepreneurial opportunities in the field of transportation, tourism and other small scale businesses.
On the basis of this decision, 70 Small Hydro-Projects shall be completed within 54 months in EPC/IPP mode after allotment of the site. As most of the hydro-power potential is located in the higher reaches, it will result in overall socio-economic development of the region by providing direct employment in the power sector.