Sundernagar: KK Ohja, Additional General Manager (AGM), Kol Dam Hydropower project, said with the kind cooperation of the state government and residents living in the vicinity of 800-MW Kol Dam, the project work would be completed by 2013. He said majority of the project works was likely to be completed soon, the work of the dam would be completed by the end of this year and next year the generation would be started.

A large quantity of silt that makes its way into the 10,000-hectare Gobind Sagar, the country’s largest fishing pond, every year has spelt doom for fish breeding grounds over of the years. The fish production in the reservoir has nosedived by nearly 50 per cent in the past five years.
This year alone, the fish production has declined by 150 tonnes as compared to last year. If the silt discharge into the Gobind Sagar continues unabated, the time is not far when the state’s fishing pond will be pushed to extinction, caution biologists.

With a vast green cover and 100-km gravity line proving to be a major impediment in the execution of the Pabbar water supply scheme, the government has decided to meet the water requirement of the capital from the Kol Dam in Bilaspur district.

The scheme from the Kol Dam, for which surveys have been completed, will quench the thirst of a target population of 6.20 lakh in Shimla till 2042.

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After running four years behind schedule, the 800 MW Kol Dam hydropower project, being executed by the NTPC, will be completed by December 2012.

It will be commissioned in 2013 as it requires more than six months to fill the 167-m-high and 12.5-sq-km reservoir.

Sub-watersheds in border areas not to be covered
With the Survey of India (SoI) and the Ministry of Defence reluctant to grant permission for the digitisation of restricted maps, the Forest Department has decided to go ahead with the finalisation of integrated catchment area treatment plan for the Sutlej basin sans the sub-watersheds falling in border areas.

The finalisation of the catchment a

Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has directed Himachal Pradesh government to include the 800-MW Kol Dam project in the Cumulative Environment Impact Assessment (CEIA) Study, which the ministry had recently ordered for the Sutlej basin.

At a time when energy security has become critical and environmental concerns emanating from the use of conventional fossil fuels are also growing, it is ironical that the bulk of India

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has asked the Kol Dam project authorities to reduce the height of the dam to help avoid submergence of a large part of the forest area under the Majathal wildlife sanctuary in Solan district.

The ministry has withheld the clearance to the project midway during implementation and directed it to come out with a fresh proposal to save the area under th

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has directed the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to expedite work on the 800 MW Kol Dam project and ensure that it was commissioned by the target date. He also urged to adopt Jawahar Lal Nehru Government Engineering College, Sundernagar, so that it could come up as a centre of excellence.

Himachal Pradesh Government has sought denotification of state's five wildlife sanctuaries including the Naina Devi, Shikari Devi, Govind Sagar, Shili and Darlaghat and reorganisation of the boundar