History:
The Sawra-Kuddu project is a Run-of-river scheme on the Pabbar river, a tributary of the Yamuna, in Shimla district in Himachal Pradesh state. The plant is one of the few projects in the Yamuna basin, where the government of Himachal Pradesh has identified a hydel potential of 1044.82 MW (shared between HP and Uttarakhand state). The state company HPPCL has created a Special Purpose Vehicle, namely, Pabbar Valley Power Corporation for execution of these projects on the same river. The Project was scheduled for completion in December 2011 but due to non completion of several construction related work, it is now expected to be operational in July 2017. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in 2014 conducted a performance audit of the project to analyse the reason in delays and overall implications on the viability of the project. The report of the CAG states, “The initial cost of the project in 2007 was estimated at 558.53 crore (INR) but given the delays, the cost has escalated upto 1,165.10 crore (INR). This has also meant an increase in per megawatt cost of electricity from 5.03 crore to 10.50 crore.”