Safety inspection of HP’s Shanan hydro power project next week
POWER PITCH HP has been making case to ask Punjab to handover plant’s charge to it
SHIMLA: Demanding that the Punjab government transfer the British-era Shanan power project in Jogindernagar to Himachal Pradesh, the state government has asked the directorate of energy to inspect the oldest hydro-electric plant in the region next week and submit its report on the condition.
“The directorate will carry out a safety inspection of the power project next week and will submit its report to the government,” director, energy, Mansi Sahay Thakur said. The Himachal government plans to raise the project maintenance with its Punjab counterpart in November-end to buttress its case for taking charge. Himachal has been pursuing this cause for seven years.
The Prem Kumar Dhumal government had raised the issue with the Centre in 2013 and demanded the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) hand over the project to Himachal. His successor Virbhadra Singh too took up the issue with the central government. It asked the Punjab government to maintain the project till the lease expires in 2024.
DEAL AND AFTER
Commissioned in 1932, the Shanan hydroelectric power house was built under a 99-year lease deed between Joginder Sen, the then king of Mandi state, and British engineer Col BC Batty in 1925. During the reorganisation of states in November 1966, the power house went to Punjab’s share as the 99-year lease deed between Sen and the British government had not expired. It will expire in 2024. With the Punjab government going slow on maintenance in view of the lease deadline, the machinery and infrastructure is rusting in neglect as the Punjab government stopped paying heed to the project five years ago.
“The project is in neglect. The Punjab government should maintain it till the lease expires or hand it over to Himachal. I have raised this issue with both the state and central governments,” said Mandi Lok Sabha member Ram Swaroop Sharma.
ENGINEERING MARVEL
This project is built in the dense deodar forests with a four-stage haulage rail network starting from Jogindernagar to Barot, a cup-shaped village, on the banks of the Uhl, a tributary of the Beas river. The British laid a small gauge rail line between Pathankot and Jogindernagar to transport heavy machinery that was imported from Britain. It was taken to Barot through the haulage network as construction of reservoirs, canals and the 2-km tunnel was to be carried out.
The ropeway trolley, one of its kind in the country, starts from Shanan at a height of 4,300 ft from a point known as 18-Number and onward from there the second phase of the haulage rail line terminates at Winch Camp at a panoramic place amid a forest at 8,000 ft above sea level.
Shanan power house electrified the entire undivided Punjab and Delhi at that time.
It was a unique project and its setting made it more of a tourist destination than a mere power house.