Jammu and Kashmir Government Accused of Handing Over Hydropower Projects to NHPC

The People’s Democratic Party on Thursday alleged that the Jammu and Kashmir government had “handed over” two new hydropower projects to the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC). The issue is a sore point in J&K, as the NHPC already manages six such projects across the Union Territory, and the return of these projects was a major issue in the last Assembly election. “An agreement has been signed between NHPC Ltd and JKSPDCL to develop the 240 MW Uri-I Stage-II and 260 MW Dulhasti Stage-II projects, with a total capacity of 500 MW. The projects will be executed under the BOOT (Build Own Operate Transfer) model for 40 years before being transferred back to the UT,” PDP legislative party leader and Pulwama MLA Waheed Para claimed. The agreement was signed on March 27, 2026, in Jammu . However, the ruling National Conference has denied that this is a fresh handover and emphasised that these decisions were in 2020-21, prior to the NC government being in power. Under the terms of the MoU, J&K is entitled to over 12% of the electricity generated from NHPC-operated projects. The rest is transferred to the power grid from which the J&K government buys at market rates to bridge the energy deficit. “In 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up working groups on Jammu and Kashmir on economic development led by former Reserve Bank of India Governor C. Rangarajan. The group recommended the transfer of Dulhasti and Bursar projects to Jammu and Kashmir, but the request was not heeded,” Para said. However, the NC said, “The proposal for implementation of these projects through NHPC on BOOT basis emanates from the decision of the Board of Directors of JKSPDCL in its 76th meeting held on 27.10.2020. Subsequently, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between JKSPDCL and NHPC on 03.01.2021 at Jammu, during a period when there was no elected government in place.” It also said that the present stage pertains to the finalisation of the Implementation Agreement (IA), which has been arrived at after detailed deliberations between JKSPDC and NHPC during 2025-26, “ensuring alignment with the provisions of the MoU and safeguarding of J&K’s interests”. A sub-committee was also formed under the NC government in 2011 to examine the terms under which hydroelectric projects were shifted to NHPC. The panel recommended the development of the Uri-II project by the state government after the ownership transfer. Blaming the PDP government for taking “no concrete steps” to operationalise the said recommendations or to secure transfer/restructuring of NHPC projects, the NC said that consequently, “the policy direction evolved during the period of LG administration, and a decision was taken in 2020-21 to implement new projects through NHPC on BOOT basis, culminating in the MoU dated 03.01.2021.”