Hydropower project stalled because of Jammu BJP MLA’s interference, construction firm’s top official says

All terms agreed upon by the company and the government when the contract was awarded in 2022 have failed “due to continued interference by local politicians and indiscipline by their supporters”, he claimed.

“We have also written to the NHPC that the project will now be completed by November 2028, and this deadline too may slip, if disruptions continue,” he said.

On her part, Parihar dismissed the allegations as “irresponsible” and “irrelevant”, alleging they were meant to malign a woman MLA and hide the company’s “incompetence”.

COO Singh alleged that Parihar has been pushing the company to hire “her people” since her election last year, and that the company’s decision to retrench 200 workers in September significantly escalated tensions.

These came to a head on the evening of December 4, when some unknown people allegedly intercepted the vehicle of the company’s human resources head at Joshana village and attacked him, causing injuries.

Singh said the company informed the police and wrote to the Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner, following which an FIR was registered. “We terminated five people allegedly behind the attack,” he said.

Since then, “some politicians and their local supporters, who are not employees of the company, are constantly threatening project officers and workers about their demands – such as getting contracts or hiring people,” he said.

He claimed: “Of the 1,434 local people recruited by the company, 960 are from Kishtwar district alone and another 220 from Doda district. Nearly 50 per cent of them either don’t know the work for which they have been recruited or don’t want to work.”

Emphasising the need to keep the project free of politics and to allow the company to function without interference, Singh, who is also overseeing the construction of the Zoji-la tunnel project, said disruptions and illegitimate demands during construction of the 133-metre-high dam at Drabshalla and the underground powerhouse could compromise safety and quality.

Parihar dismissed the allegations. “If the company had any problem in carrying out its works, he, as an official of the contractor company, should have first of all gone to the NHPCL, Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner, Divisional Commissioner, or the Lt Governor,” she said, also accusing the official of “recruiting people with terror links”.

She accused the official of trying to create an atmosphere congenial for communal violence in the district, claiming that most of the people recruited by him happen to be surrendered militants. Only recently, he retrenched a Kashmiri Pandit youth and in his place recruited a local person from Banihal who has terror links, she alleged.

Referring to the killing of her father and uncle by terrorists in Kishtwar town, she said that Singh was trying to intimidate and harass her.

The project

Work on the Ratle Hydel Power Project began in 2008, when the then Jammu and Kashmir government decided to commission it in the state sector through the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Corporation Limited (JKPDCL). After obtaining all clearances, including environmental approvals, and completing land acquisition, JKPDCL signed an MoU with GVK Industries Limited the same year.

GVK awarded the contract to L&T, which worked at the site till 2014, when a mob of locals forced the company’s engineers out and locked the camp. Engineers left the site the same night, after which the J&K government decided to turn the project into a joint venture with the Government of India.

NHPC, under the Ministry of Power, formed the Ratle Hydroelectric Power Corporation Limited, a joint venture company (JVC), with Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation Ltd (JKSPDC) in 2021 to implement the run-of-river hydroelectric plant on the Chenab river at Drabshalla village. NHPC holds 51 per cent equity and JKSPDC 49 per cent.

Tenders were floated in 2020, and MEIL, as the lowest bidder, won the contract.

The JVC was incorporated on June 1, 2021, with NHPC and JKSPDC holding equity shares of 51 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively. Construction work is being undertaken by MEIL.