Agreements for the construction of 500 MW Dugar Hydroelectric Project and 42 MW Baggi Hydro Electric Project were signed in the presence of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur here on Friday late evening.

Director of the Ministry of Energy,  Harikesh Meena signed the agreement on behalf of the state government while NHPC General Manager (Power) Suresh Kumar and Secretary of BBMB Satish Kumar Singla were the signatory on behalf of their respective enterprises.

The Dugar project would be constructed by NHPC in Killar of Chamba district and the Baggi project by the BBMB in Baggi of Mandi district.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister mentioned the estimated cost of Dugar Hydro Electric Project is Rs 3987.34 crore.

He further underlined that about Rs 59.81 crore would be contributed by the project developer under the Local Area Development Fund in the project affected area.

Thakur also announced that the construction of the project would be completed in 71 months after the commencement of the work. The allotment of this hydroelectric power project was made to NHPC on 7 August, 2018 and the MoU was signed on 26 September, 2019. The Government of India gave technical approval to the detailed report of the project on 26 April, 2022.

Thakur said that the estimated cost of the Baggi Hydroelectric Project is Rs 284.87 crore. He said that 135.6 million Units of electricity would be generated annually from this project.

Rs 4.21 crore would be contributed by the project developer under the Local Area Development Fund in the project affected area and the construction of this project would be completed in 30 months after the commencement of the work, he added.

The Baggi Hydroelectric Project was allotted to BBMB on 10 July, 2019 and the MoU was signed on 8 November, 2019.

The Chief Minister noted that in the implementation contract of the projects, a provision has been made to provide 12% free electricity to the government from the Baggi Hydroelectric Project and 4% to 25% from the Duggar Hydro Electric Project for 70 years.

 “100 units of electricity per month would be provided to the affected families free of cost for 10 years. Construction of these projects would provide direct employment to about 4300 people,” he said.