Chief minister Harish Rawat on Thursday inaugurated the 1 MW hydropower project proposed on Tons river at Purkul village.
The hydropower project of small generation capacity was inaugurated weeks after state government gave green signal to a proposal that sought drafting of a policy for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to commission hydropower projects with power generation capacity of 1 MW to 25 MW and 25 MW to 50 MW.
Under the policy, village panchayat bodies will be allowed to share revenue from power generated through rivers and other water bodies. After inaugurating the project Rawat said that this was the beginning of a process to encourage village panchayat bodies and people living in remote areas to participate in power generation process in their own land.
“The scheme will bring opportunities to the locals by not only catering to their power needs but also to make money by selling the power to UPCL,” said Rawat.