Taking a step additional for carbon-neutral Ladakh, the administration of the union territory has signed a tripartite agreement that will assistance in establishment of the country’s very first-ever geothermal field improvement project. The agreement/ pact was signed involving the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Energy Centre and Union Territory Administration Ladakh, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Leh. Ladakh Lieutenant Governor R K Mathur along with MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal had been also there on the sidelines who termed this improvement as a step in order to make Ladakh carbon-neutral. According to a report by PTI, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed involving Ladakh Power Development Department Administrative Secretary Ravinder Kumar, LAHDC Chief Executive Officer Sachin Kumar Vaishya and ONGC Energy Centre.
The project will be executed in a phased manner exactly where phase 1 is the pilot project. Under this pilot, energy generation capacity of 1 megawatt (MW) will be generated and the common public will get one hundred per cent no cost energy provide. The report stated that ONGC Energy Centre will place an agency for this pilot project.
Under the phase 2 for this project, the officials will dive deep in the “lateral exploration of geothermal reservoir” and this will be carried out by drilling an optimal quantity of wells. A higher capacity demo plant will also be set up in Ladakh. Depending on the found capacity, the strategy is to make this a industrial project below phase 3, the report citing the spokesperson stated. According to the lieutenant governor, this memorandum will mark the very first geothermal project in India and the project is a promising initiative that will lead to an revolutionary and sustainable improvement in Ladakh.
Apart from this, Mathur stated that the government is attempting to study and discover from other nations concerning tourism improvement as effectively as greenhouses when it comes to a ge-thermal project. He also urged ONGC Energy Centre to execute the project as early as attainable additional ramping it up to 200 MW capacity. ONGC Energy Centre Director General Sanjeev S Katti, on the other hand, noted that the power from this project will provide energy supplies at all occasions and the hot water from the spring will permit some space-heating and it can also lead to establishment of hot swimming pools that will later attract vacationers.