Lake tapping may end Maharashtra power woes

Even if the water levels in the Koyna dam falls during summer, Maharashtra may be able to get uninterrupted power supply from the hydro- electric project with the state successfully completing the lake tapping and underground tunnel project on Wednesday.

The project, which consists of an underground tunnel that was commissioned through controlled underwater explosions, will ensure that power can be generated even if the water levels in the dam falls. This is for the second time that the lake-tapping experiment was conducted. The previous one was carried out in 1999.

The 1,956MW Koyna project accounts for a major chunk of the MahaGenco’s 2,585 MW capacity in the hydro power sector. A total of 67.5 TMC water from the dam has been allocated for power generation.

Speaking on the occasion, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said they planned to add a fifth stage in the project, which will be of an 80MW pumped storage scheme and added that they were trying to secure environment clearances for it.

Pointing out that the Koyna area witnessed earthquake shocks, Chavan said the Centre had approved a Rs300crore project to set up a university like centre to study seismology.

Apart from power generation, this project will also help provide water to drought-hit areas through Takari, Tembhu and Mhaisal irrigation projects.

Irrigation minister Sunil Tatkare said the state government has set up a study committee to examine how water from the project, which flows into the Arabian Sea, could be diverted for use at places like Raigad, Thane and Navi Mumbai.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said the state would be free of load-shedding by December 2012. The Koyna project had four stages of 600 MW, 320 MW, 1,000 MW and 1,000 MW each and a power house with a 36 MW capacity.