India?s largest private hydropower generator Jaypee group is on course to commission the entire 1,000 mw capacity of the Karcham Wangtoo hydroelectric project in the state by August 15, almost three months ahead of the schedule.
This is the largest hydropower project in the private sector, so far.
?We have commissioned the first 250 mw unit of the project on May 26, 52 days before the deadline and expect to put on stream the balance capacity by August 16 as against the original schedule of Nov 17, 2011,? DP Goyal, managing director, Jaypee Karcham Hydroelectric Corporation, told FE.
Karcham Wangtoo is built as run-of-the-river project over the Sutlej in the Kinnaur district of the state by Jaiprakash Hydro, a company of the Jaypee group.
The group is already running two hydropower plants, one in Himachal Pradesh and one in Uttarakhand. These plants have combined capacity of 700 mw. Meanwhile, the group has also commissioned one 250 mw unit of Karcham Wangtoo project, taking its total installed hydropower generation capacity to 950 mw. After the commissioning of the balance capacity at Karcham Wangtoo, its installed capacity will increase to 1,700 mw.
The company started work on the R7,000 crore Karcham Wangtoo project on April 1, 2006. This will be the third hydroelectric project to be completed by the company before schedule.