On Friday, India’s largest 1,500MW Nathpa Jhakri hydropower station crossed the mark of cumulative 100 billion unit’s electricity generation. Since 2003, the power station has been supplying power to Haryana, Punjab, J&K, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, and Himachal Pradesh.
Chairman and managing director, Nand Lal Sharma, said that the 100-billion mark of power generation is a historic occasion. According to him, the highest annual generation achieved was 7,610 million units in 2011-12.
The power station acknowledged as a “marvel of civil engineering” by the World Bank had been commissioned in 2004 at a cost of Rs 8,187 crore. It has the world’s most voluminous desilting chambers, one of the longest head race tunnels (27.39km long), one of the deepest surge shafts (301m) and one of the largest underground powerhouse complexes.
The revenue earned over the years had not only added substantially to the company’s net worth, which today stands at Rs 10,695 crore, but also to its reserves at Rs 6,764.91 crore, said Sharma. The major shareholder, Government of India, has been already paid a dividend of Rs 3,889.4 crore on an investment of Rs 3081.6 crore while the Himachal Pradesh government holding 26.85% of the equity has been paid a dividend of Rs 1,485.06 crore against an investment of Rs 1,055 crore.
