Nimoo Bazgo Hydroelectric Plant

The Nimoo Bazgo Power Project is a run-of-the-river power project on the Indus River situated at Alchi village, 75 km from Leh in the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh. The project was conceived on 1 July 2001 and approved on 8 June 2005, and construction began on 23rd Sept, 2006. The project involves construction of a 57 m concrete dam with five spillway blocks of 13 m each having ogee profile.

The Nimoo Bazgo power plant envisages utilizing a rated net head of 34 m to generate 239.30 GWh in a 90% dependable year. The project has three surface power units of 15 MW each with a total installed capacity of 45 MW. Every unit has a 3.3 m diameter, each 63 m penstocks. Each operating unit will be designed for a discharge of 48.7 m3/s and also have transformer yard and switch yard. The project will be connected to the northern grid through a 220 kV transmission line from Leh to Srinagar (the line is scheduled for commissioning with project commissioning). The dam diverts water from the river by a 372 m long diversion channel and involves a flooding of only 3.42 km2. Thus the power density is undefined MW/km2. The project is being developed by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Ltd., while Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) has executed the Electro-Mechanical works.

All the three units of the project have been successfully commissioned. The project was inaugurated on 12 August 2014 by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, in a ceremony attended by senior officials including Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir Omar Abdullah, National Security Adviser Ajit Kumar Doval and others.