All the four units of the first phase of the 2,400 Mw Tehri project would start functioning in two months and technical problems related to it would be sorted out soon, officials said here today. | |
| This follows the cancellation of the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi to Tehri on Saturday. |
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| The new progarmme for the two leaders will now be chalked out only when all the four turbines of the Rs 8,000 crore Tehri dam start functioning. Instead of flying to Tehri, the two leaders will go to Nainital to attend the two-day conclave of chief ministers of Congress-ruled states. |
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| Both Singh and Gandhi were scheduled to visit Tehri to dedicate Asia's highest hydel project to the nation on Saturday. They were also expected to announce a package for the remaining dam-affected people, mostly from rural areas. |
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| It was reliably learnt that the PMO was not very keen on Singh's visit to Tehri because the demand for a comprehensive rehabilitation package for the affected people of Tehri was growing and that all the four units of the dam were not operational. |
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| Uttaranchal is expecting a package for the affected people because hundreds of people have become jobless because of the submergence of Tehri town, once a flourishing business centre of the Garhwal region. |
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| A state Congress delegation led by PCC President Harish Rawat last week met Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and demanded various sops including jobs for at least one member of the dam affected families. |
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| Negotiations are also underway to provide job opportunities in terms of allotment of shops along the proposed Ring Road that would be developed along the Reservoir for the purpose of tourism, Bist said. |
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| Earlier, Shinde had inaugurated the first unit (250 MW) of the project on July 30 while declaring that the project has started commercial generation. Since then, there was a lot of confusion whether the dam has actually started commercial generation or not. |
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| While top officials of the THDC, the implementation agency, insisted that power from the dam is reaching continuously to the northern grid, the state government officials remained sceptical in this regard. |
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