7 months ago
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An apex committee of the Environment Ministry has accorded a caller biology clearance to the Sawalkote hydroelectric project, projected to travel up connected Chenab stream successful Ramban, Jammu and Kashmir.
Planned arsenic a run-of-the-river task utilising the travel of the Chenab to make electricity, it is reportedly the archetypal large hydropower task connected the Indus rivers to beryllium accorded biology clearance pursuing India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) connected April 23, 2025, pursuing the Pahalgam panic attack.
“The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), aft examining the accusation submitted and elaborate deliberations, reiterated its earlier proposal connected the task and recommended the connection for assistance of anterior Environmental Clearance to Sawalkote H.E. Project,” said the minutes of a gathering conducted connected September 26, 2025.
The task was archetypal accorded an biology clearance by a designated committee successful 2017, erstwhile it was primitively being steered by the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Corporation (JKPDC). However, the JKPDC signed a woody with the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) Ltd successful 2021 to physique and committee the task and beryllium efficaciously successful complaint of it until 2061.
Despite the designated committee’s nod, the Environment Ministry could not wide the task arsenic the JKPDC could not procure a wood clearance – which follows a parallel support process. In September 2023, the task was archetypal accorded a ‘stage 1 wood clearance’ arsenic per publically disposable records.
Also read: Indus Waters Treaty suspended: India has galore options, says expert
Project outgo goes up
While the process of transferring the task to the NHPC has been connected since 2021, a slew of approvals from the Central Electricity Authority and the Central Water Commission were accorded successful July 2025. Public hearings, required to beryllium done nether the provisions of the Forest Rights Act, were done betwixt December 2022 to February 2023.
“The Sawalkote task was already going done assorted stages of approval. Given its size – though it does not person a retention dam – it volition beryllium the largest task of its benignant and has ever had definite strategical importance. The suspension of the IWT and the program to utilise the afloat imaginable of the eastbound Indus rivers person added momentum to the support process,” a elder official, alert of the support process of hydroelectric projects, told The Hindu, but declined to beryllium identified.
The Sawalkote task volition dwell of a 192.5-m precocious Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) gravity dam with six powerfulness generator units of 225 MW capableness and 1 portion of 56MW capableness successful the archetypal signifier and 2 units of 225 MW capableness successful the 2nd signifier of development. From an earlier estimation of astir ₹22,000 crore, estimated outgo of the task has ballooned to ₹31,380 crore.
It is projected to person an installed powerfulness capableness of 1856 MW and make astir 8,000 cardinal units of energy annually. With a reservoir country of astir 1,159 hectares – 847 ha of which is wood land, the task is expected to beryllium dispersed implicit 1,401 hectares. A full of 13 villages from 2 tehsils, viz. Ramban and Gool Sangaldan of Ramban district, volition beryllium affected owed to acquisition of onshore for the operation of components of the Sawalkote HEP and 1,477 families are expected to beryllium displaced, requiring resettlement. For their resettlement and rehabilitation, ₹190 crore has been provisioned.
