Amid growing protests on construction of hydro power projects in tribal districts of Kinnaur and Lahaul Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, Satluj Jal vidyut Nigam (SJVN) will reach out to locals to allay their fears, chairman and managing director N L Sharma said on Friday.

Talking to media, Sharma said various government agencies including Geological Survey of India conducts studies at the proposed site of hydro projects and it was only after permission from line departments that approval was granted for construction of a project.

In addition, various disaster mitigation measures are carried out by the implementing agency before and after the construction of hydro power projects in a particular region.

“But we have seen that most of the opposition from people against hydro power projects is from those who aren’t affected by their construction.

Besides, some organizations with vested interests fuel such protests and as has been proven in the past, these organizations get funding from foreign countries to hamper the development process in India,” he added.

He reiterated that the SJVN will not construct any hydro power project in any area without the consent of the locals and said the company will connect with locals to allay their fears in Kinnaur and Lahaul Spiti districts.

Sharma stated that SJVN has planned an investment of Rs 75,000 crore investments in the country, of which Rs 23,000 crore will be invested in Himachal Pradesh.

He called for maintaining symbiotic relations in hydro and solar power generation for powergrid stability and said many technological changes will be included in construction of hydro power projects to reduce ecological effects in a region.

He further stated that SJVN had achieved outstanding operational performance by generating 9,224 million units of electricity from 5 power projects in the country as against the assessed production of 8,700 million units.

SJVN has also recorded the highest ever profit before tax of Rs 2,168 crore in 2020-21 while profit after tax has also increased to Rs 1,633 crore as compared to Rs 1,557 crore in 2019-20.

As per our shared vision, SJVN is aiming to achieve the target of power generation of 12,000 MW by 2030 with 50 per cent from renewable energy sources and 25,000 MW by 2040 with 60 per cent share from clean energy sources, Sharma said.

He added that as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision, the company aims to have a portfolio of producing 30 per cent energy from renewable sources by 2023.