Taking a step further for carbon-neutral Ladakh, the administration of the union territory has signed a tripartite agreement that will help in establishment of the country’s first-ever geothermal field development project. The agreement/ pact was signed between 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 were also there on the sidelines who termed this development as a step in order to make Ladakh carbon-neutral. According to a report by PTI, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between 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 where phase 1 is the pilot project. Under this pilot, power generation capacity of 1 megawatt (MW) will be generated and the general public will get 100 per cent free power supply. The report said that ONGC Energy Centre will put 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 done by drilling an optimal number of wells. A high capacity demo plant will also be set up in Ladakh. Depending on the discovered capacity, the plan is to make this a commercial project under phase 3, the report citing the spokesperson said. According to the lieutenant governor, this memorandum will mark the first geothermal project in India and the project is a promising initiative that will lead to an innovative and sustainable development in Ladakh.
Apart from this, Mathur said that the government is trying to study and learn from other countries regarding tourism development as well as greenhouses when it comes to a ge-thermal project. He also urged ONGC Energy Centre to execute the project as early as possible further ramping it up to 200 MW capacity. ONGC Energy Centre Director General Sanjeev S Katti, on the other hand, noted that the energy from this project will provide power supplies at all times and the hot water from the spring will allow some space-heating and it can also lead to establishment of hot swimming pools that will later attract tourists.
