Goemkarponn Desk
MADKAI: Power Minister Sudin Dhavalikar today said that with the change in government in Karnataka there is nothing clear whether the union government wants to continue with the Tamnar project or not.
“There is no clarity whether the union government wants to continue with the Tamnar project with change of government in the neighboring state of Karnataka,” said Dhavalikar
He further said that by the month of August or September, things would be clear.
He said the state government is encouraging the use of solar panels and a scheme for farmers has been launched, which benefits them with a subsidy of 90 per cent on total expenditure.
“This project is very important to us as it will give us additional 1200 MW power. Work on this project is possible only after the rainy season gets over as Goa and Karnataka receive heavy rainfall,” Dhavalikar said.
Speaking about the Tamnar project, Dhavalikar said that people opposed it as the environment was getting affected due to the felling of trees.
“But now as the Supreme Court has suggested to realign the transmission line with the existing line, there will be no loss of trees,” he said
Karnataka has received a breather with respect to the proposed Goa-Tanmar transmission project which could have resulted in felling of more than 62,000 trees in the State forests.
The 400 kV transmission line project from Goa to Tamnar entailed diversion of 177 hectares of forest land in Dharwad, Belagavi, and Uttara Kannada districts.
The project is to draw a transmission line from the existing power grid at Narendra in Dharwad district to Xeldem in Goa, and the length of the transmission line is 94 km out of which 72 km length of the line was to pass through Karnataka forests, including 6.6 km of the line through Anshi-Dandeli tiger reserve.
The Central Empowerment Committee (CEC) at its meeting on April 13 to discuss the issue clarified that the Karnataka government should take a decision on the most appropriate alignment for the transmission line up to Narendra and the CEC’s examination of the proposed alignment was limited to the State of Goa only.