Union Minister and BJP Candidate for the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency, Dr Jitendra Singh on Friday said that neglected by Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has transformed the Kishtwar region into North India’s “power generation hub”.

Addressing a series of election meetings in the upper and peripheral reaches of Kishtwar, Dr Jitendra Singh said that right from the time of independence when Kishtwar was part of the erstwhile Doda district, the elected representatives of the Congress and its allies from this region always enjoyed considerable clout and the local MLA invariably secured a ministerial position in the state cabinet, while the MP from here was always appointed as a minister in the Union cabinet. Despite this, he said, it will be a question to be asked why Kishtwar did not receive the kind of attention it deserved till Prime Minister Modi took over in 2014.

He said Kishtwar is all set to emerge as North India’s major “power hub” generating around 6,000 MW of electricity after the completion of the ongoing power projects. Six to seven major hydropower projects have come up in the region in a short span of 9 to 10 years since Modi took over as the Prime Minister.

Elaborating on this, he pointed out that the largest capacity project is Pakal Dul with a capacity of 1000 MW. Its estimated cost, as of now, is Rs 8,112 crore and the expected timeline of competition is 2025. Another major project is the Kiru Hydroelectric project with a capacity of 624 MW. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 4,285 crore and the timeline in this case is also 2025, he said. The 850 MW Ratle project has been revived as a joint venture between the Centre and the UT of J&K. In addition, the existing Dulhasti power station has an installed capacity of 390 MW, while the Dulhasti II Hydroelectric project will have a capacity of 260 MW.

Dr Jitendra Singh said these projects shall not only augment the power supply position thereby making up for the shortage of power supply in the UT of J&K, but the huge investment being made for construction of these projects is also a boost for direct as well as indirect employment opportunities for the local people.

People had been demanding a degree college for the remote Paddar but the Congress and the National Conference governments deliberately ignored this demand. It was only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over in 2014 that a degree college was sanctioned for Paddar under Centre’s scheme RUSA (Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan). Prior to 2014, road travel to Kishtwar was cumbersome and on the slightest landside, the Doda-Kishtwar road got blocked. But today, the road travel time from Jammu to Kishtwar has reduced from over 7 hours to less than 5 hours.