Sidrabong Power Station To Be Revived, Declared Heritage Project
The countrys first hydro-electric power generating project, set up a century ago at Sidrabong in the Darjeeling hill area of West Bengal, has been declared a heritage project by the Centre.
Plans are also afoot to revive the micro hydel power station, which has been shut down for some time now, as part of the countrys golden jubilee independence day celebrations.
Announcing this here yesterday, state power minister S K Sen and Union minister of state in the ministry of non-conventional energy sources (MNES) Captain J N P Nishad said that at least one of the three 200 kilowatt units of the project will be re-commissioned by March 1998. The MNES will fund the renovation of the power project.
The approach road to the Sidrabong power station is also being repaired on a priority basis by the Gorkha Hill Council. The renovation work of the project will be taken up as soon as the road is ready.
The station, which was set up in 1897, had earlier been renovated in 1931 before it was shut down owing to its old age. A few other ageing hydroelectric units, of which at least two are in the north-eastern parts of the country, have already been declared heritage projects
Sen said that a scheme would also be finalised shortly under which a cluster of five micro hydel projects in north Bengal would be run via remote control. He said the remote control idea had been mooted since it had been found uneconomical to man such small stations round the year.