Rampur HPS
Tunneling Clean
Changing landscape
Hydro Tunnels in Himalayas– A Challenge for Man and Machine
Muck dumping – SJVN leaving no ugly scars behind
The project has changed it all, life was never so good
For Ram Lal, it’s a generational leap
Green carpet landscapes
Tunneling Clean
Channeling a mighty Himalayan river into a tunnel is more than an engineering adventure. Not only does it demand gritty determination but the everyday challenges thrown up require constant application and innovation to get the job done. The construction of the Rampur Hydro Electric Project on the Sutlej River is a story of how a band of dedicated men labored underground for years to build a vital piece of infrastructure needed to supply power for an electricity-hungry nation.

Boring inch by inch through solid rock in the heart of the mountainside, a diverse team of workers, engineers and contractors have labored for seven years to build the 15-km tunnel that will carry water from Jhakri to the turbines in the powerhouse at Bayal. The fragile geology of the young Himalayas has made the exercise challenging and complex. With the 412 MW generation capacity project gearing up for commissioning, the workers have not forgotten the challenges they encountered and overcame.

Workmen camaraderie
It was the need for a job that made Jagmohan Singh Rawatsign up with the contractor building the Rampur Project. A hill man from Pauri Garhwal in neighbouring Uttarakhand, the 37-year-old at first found it uncomfortable working inside the tunnel where temperatures often touched a hot 39 degree Celsius with maximum seepage of 350 L/sec. and needed to be artificially cooled. Seasons outside changed unregistered as they worked inside the hot damp tunnel, with huge ventilators constantly pumping in fresh air through long snaking pipes so they could breathe clean air. If there was a sudden power failure, the tunnel got hotter and dustier very quickly and generators had to be kept on standby so that the workers’ health did not suffer.

Work went on 24x7, and shifts in the underground tunnel meant they often lost track of time. "During a day shift, you don’t see sunlight or the blue sky and during night shift you are not aware of the darkness as heavy machines growl away, tearing down layers of rock in a flood-lit environment,” said Rawat. "But as work progressed, the job just got addictive. The challenge and excitement to see light at the end of the tunnel kept us going,” he recalls.

Sudden and dangerous encounters with extremely hot or cold gushing water flows, falling rocks, mud flows and claustrophobic dust clouds that had to doused with sprinklers were only some of the hardships these men met – hardships that, they say, only hardened their spirit to see the project through.

It was also a journey on which encounters with complete strangers turned into lasting friendships. Kumar Lama is a Nepali who worked with Jagmohan on a critical section of the tunnel where they ran into a crumbling rock cavity. He recalls how they, along with Kanju, a Bengali, Gudda Kumar, a Bihari and Surinder Kumar, a native from Jharkhand, came together as a shift team.

While the SJVN engineers grappled with design issues of laying out a tunnel to carry voluminous water flows through weak rock formations, Jagmohan, Kumar Lama and team worked daily to shore up the tunnel cavity with steel girders and fix it with concrete grit before it could be lined smoothly and turned into a safe and durable channel.

Rati Ram 52, a native from Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh, was one of those working on the Surge Shaft section. The Surge Shaft is a vertical tunnel which allows space for the waters gushing down to the turbines to dissiptate harmlessly when the turbines are turned off. This tunnel is open to the sky above.

Rati Ram made a subsistence living on his family’s farm before he set out to find work. Hearing about vacancies for workers at Rampur, he arrived at the labour contractor’s office and was signed up in March 2007.Work on the Head Race Tunnel from the Bayal end had just started when Rati was made part of the team to bore a test- tunnel perpendicular to the HRT, some 162.5 meters deep inside the mountain. This would eventually be the surge shaft section.

"Initially of course we were apprehensive to be working inside the mountain”, recalls Rati Ram, "but as work progressed and we got deeper and deeper into the mountain, we became more confident.”

After completing the exploratory tunnel, widening it to a 40 meter wide and 162.5 meter deep cavity got much easier. Muck and broken rock blasted out was passed along to dumpers lined up to load it and carry it to designated dumping yards outside.

Back from one vacation, he brought along Vikram, a 25-year-old unemployed youth from his native village to work with him."Working alongside big machines and mighty cranes appeared very scary at first but by the time the tunnel was completed, for many of us it was both joyous and sad moment. We were happy at having completed a challenging task but sad on having to part with some of the best friendships developed,” reminiscences Vikram.

Accidents
March 21, 2011 is a date that Vikram recalls with sadness. In fact it was a sad day for all workers in the surge shaft section. The engineering involved here was complex. Madan Tomar, a 35-year-old fellow native from Sirmaur, was working on laying steel bars from a raised platform at a point where the tunnel structure was to divert water in controlled conditions from the main tunnel into three smaller penstock tunnels. Water released at this point would ultimately drive the six turbines to generate energy at the surface hydropower plant.

Tomar was working on the nightshift when he apparently lost his balance and fell to the rocky tunnel floor. He died immediately. Heavy machines shut down, the welding and hammering of steel came to a halt as work stopped in silence inside the mountain. It was the first major accident in four years of work

Tomar was rushed the project hospital at Bayal where the doctors declared him as having been dead on arrival. . "He was a very dear friend,” remembers Vikram. Projects of this scale often see construction accidents and the Rampur Project had its share despite strong efforts to ensure worker safety.

Be it a laborer, a miner, an electrician, a driver, an operator, earthwork, fall protection, concrete placement, chipping or breaking concrete or handling small compaction equipment, safety provisions such as wearing hard hats, safety glasses, vests, work boots, hearing protection during mining, grinding, chipping of compressed air tool usage was binding and mandatory for one and all.

When the going got tough, the tough got going - KK Gupta (Project Head)
The man leading the project construction team, Project head KK Gupta, is a satisfied man today, having weathered many setbacks in the process of project construction.

Tunnel cavity break downs pose an engineering challenge
Using controlled and calibrated blasts to bore the head race tunnel hit a rough patch one cold afternoon in Jan.2010. Comprehensive geological surveys had been conducted but even the most detailed survey does not provide a full picture and geological surprises are often encountered in this work. The engineers sent probing drills into the broken down strata ahead that revealed cavities ahead that would not hold rock together for a tunnel to be bored through. "We found more than 50 cavities in just that one stretch,” recalls KK Gupta.

"The geological surveys had estimated that the ratio of good quality rock to poor quality stood at 63:35, but in actual fact, almost half the rock encountered was of poor quality and this upset our time schedules and costs,” says Anil Goel, a Senior Manger.

Umakant Sharma, the Geologist who oversaw construction of the 14.79 km long head race tunnel explains how broken layers of bad rock strata or cavities are formed deep inside folded layers of sedimentary rocks. "Tectonic movements at times cause one rock layer to fold over another one and a weak rock layer sometimes gets crumpled and is trapped between two hard layers. When working on a tunnel, such rocks simply fall through and create large cavities,” he says.

When two attempts to push the tunnel through failed, the Project team went back to the drawing board. A quick turnaround decision was taken to construct an additional 130 meter access tunnel which would bypass the bad patch and work could continue and the decision was appaluaded by International and National expert.

Whereas the tunnel engineers on an average were excavating 178 meters tunnel length in a month (for a tunnel of 10 meter diameter) in stable rock conditions, progress in the weak rock section slowed down so much that it took them 15 months to get past a 25 meter stretch. The geological challenged delayed the project by a year. Having overcome the obstacle and as the projects readies for generating power, Project Head Gupta says, "It has been a very challenging assignment but a very satisfying one too.”
 

Changing Landscape
The old way of life, largely dependent upon selling milk and the yearly paddy crops which often netted little more than repaying the previous year’s loans, may soon be a thing of the past in Bayal village. The village, one of those that has benefitted most from the induced development sparked by the Rampur Hydro Electric Project, aspires to become a model village in the Satluj valley.

"The project has benefitted all of us here,” says Sohan Lal, a 73-year-old resident of the village. He had to give up 2 bighas of his land in Bayal village for the construction of the powerhouse and with the money he received as compensation, he refurbished his old house. Nothing stands of the original structure but the old kitchen. In its place is a new reinforced concrete structure that has a four-room apartment on the ground floor and a two-room one on the first floor with an open terrace. Besides building the new family home, Sohan Lal used the compensation to repay old debts, and gifting Rs 1 lakh each to his two married daughters.

‘‘What more would have I asked for?” he says with a smile. "Earlier the drudgery of growing rice crops and travelling everyday to Rampur to sell milk was not enough to sustain a debt-free life,” says SohanLal. He has now diversified to growing vegetables, and the milk is now picked up from the village by the project.

From 2005 as a base year, by 2010, family incomes had increased from Rs 55,890/- to Rs 92,931.50, an increase of 26.29% in real terms and an increase of 66% in absolute terms, a midterm project impact study done in 2010 by SMEC, Delhi recorded.

His 38-year-old son Kamal Singh has also been regularly employed for the last seven years with the contractor building the project infrastructure, and is earning Rs 16,000 a month, adding to the family’s monthly kitty. With the contractor on the verge of closing the contract, Kamal Singh has plans drawn up to take to off season vegetable growing on the family farm lands.

Sohan Lal’s younger brother Karam Singh, also received compensation and has also constructed a six-room concrete house in another part of the village. His family continues to live in the old house and the new one is rented out.

Karam Singh’s granddaughter training to be a nurse is a marker of the shift that has taken place in an otherwise largely conservative society, where a girl’s education was low priority

Between 2006 and 2012, an Rs 90, 65,107/- amount has been spent for training of 195 sponosred candidates, which included 31 girls, in various trade training courses.

Kumta, Sonam and Sunita, from the project affected area, are among those who undertook a sponsored beautician training course. In all there were 25 women who did undergo the short duration course and they are running their shops presently adding income to their family further 30 men/women under gone three months computer diploma course which has help them to provide the employment. Cutting and tailoring training imparted to 30 nos. Of women which has change their life style.

Sohan Lal and his family are not the only ones who have built new assets from the compensation they received for land acquired by the Project. Nearly all families whose land was acquire for the project have bought lands elsewhere, planted new orchards and built new houses for themselves.

Others who lost their homesteads to land acquisition have also built better lives for themselves. Eighty-eight year old Shirpi Ram is one such. He lost about eight bighas of land along with his old house to the Project. He was one of 15 people whose houses were also acquired for the Rampur project.

With the onus for ensuring their rehabilitation falling on SJVN, the company bought alternate house land for these families and gave them the option of either having a ready-built house handed over or of getting cash compensation to build a house to suit ones needs.

Shirpi Ram opted for the latter option and his family has built a double-storied house. His new home has a front yard, something rare in the otherwise compact village and an object of envy among his neighbours. "Growing flowers and vegetables in your own house garden is something that I would have loved to do,” Says SohanLal wistfully.

Even IshwarDass, a 64-year-old farmer whose land was not acquired, has benefitted. His son found employment with a contractor, the surplus farm produce from his lands has a market within the village and with the increased income he has been able to build a new concrete house.

The 2010 midterm impact study conducted by SMEC, a Delhi based organisation besides noting a 66% rise in income at Bayal village than what it was in 2005 before work on the project started also recorded that the family size had come down from 5.04 to 4.04, average house size had increased by as much as 36.45% and an increase in employment both government and private was indicative of diversification in occupation from agriculture, the mainstay of the rural economy.

Today, SohanLal reflects on how living standards in the village gradually improved over the years as the project helped bring in modern facilities. Household toilets did not exist in the village earlier. A water supply scheme executed by the project authorities has brought in regular water and enabled the entire village to build household toilets, thus eradicating open defecation.

The rough-shod village paths have been laid with concrete, and the channel irrigating the 12 bighas of land that SohanLal owns in the village farmlands has been rehabilitated, allowing him reliable irrigation when his crops most need it.

In fact, as one walks through the village streets, the mix of old and new structures clearly shows that over half of Bayal residents today live in better, more modern houses than a few years ago. In the little square just inside the entrance to the village, it is difficult to find a parking slot for many vehicles remain parked there. Many of them are small commercial vehicles owned by the villagers purchased through the compensation paid to them are hired on a regular basis by the project authorities. Besides the small market, the village temples have got a facelift; a new bus stand, post office and a new community centre have been built, and a commercial bank has opened a branch in Bayal. The BSNL has also opened the new telephone exchange for better communication in the area.

The most beneficial of course is the Project’s well-equipped modern dispensary that is open to all local villagers. It has enabled women, children and senior citizens to access quality free healthcare within the village itself. Availability of regular water, a new bridge and road connecting them to the highway across the river and street lighting have made life especially easier for the womenfolk.

Many of these amenities have been made possible by the close partnership between the villagers and the Project. The development has been led by the villagers while the Project has made available the funds for local development. Heading the community development Panchayat body, Meenaksi Devi, the village Pradhan says, "A detailed plan for making Bayal into a model village is now being prepared. Laying a sewerage system with a connection to every house is our top priority, as is improving street lighting in the village,” she adds.

From a village that went about its traditional way of life till a few years ago, Bayal is on the threshold of becoming a modern, model village in the Sutlej basin.

Hydro Tunnels in Himalayas– A Challenge for Man and Machine
Channeling a mighty Himalayan River into a tunnel for generating hydro-electricity is more than an engineering adventure for not only does it draw upon heroic determination to bore through strata fraught with geological surprises but it also demands the sharpest minds around to throw up innovate solutions to get the job done.

Inch by inch carving out a tunnel through kilometers of solidified Himalayan rocks that has metamorphosed over a million year period from sedimentary and volcanic rocks, demand highly skilled engineering and a motivated workforce to take up such a daunting task.

For the Rampur hydropower project in North India, a 15.177 Km long and 10.5 meter dia. tunnel will channelize waters without constructing a separate dam from outflow of the upstream 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri plant on Satluj River to operate a 412 MW generation capacity plant. This is one such engineering feat that will harness clean energy for the benefit of mankind.

Pitched against the mountain, Jagmohan Rawat, a 35 year old worker on the project sums up the heroic efforts demanded to execute such large tunnels by saying "for days, months and years together working with solid rocks does harden you but an underling excitement always persists that this tunnel will someday see light at the other end.”.

Not deterred by working deep inside mountains, having lived through falling rocks, not surprised by encountering hot (upto ± 66º temperature at Wadhal point in Jhakri project) or cold water flows deep inside rock formations, getting past dusty and claustrophobic space that is freshly created by blasting rocks Jagmohan only says, "This job is kind of addictive. As the tunnel progresses, the desire to see it to completion grows in you.”

With Kumar Lama - a Nepali, Kanju – a Bengali, Gudda Kumar - a Bihari and Surinder Kumar - a native from Jharkhand as teammates, working in day shift on a critical section of the tunnel, Jagmohan, who is a native from Uttrakhand says "when one is working deep inside a mountain, one may not seeing daylight for a fortnight and one does temporarily loses the very concept of time.”

Working conditions do test the grit of man and machine for hot and humid temperatures hover at or above 48- 50 degree Celsius. Constantly working larger blowers for cooling and supplying fresh air into the working area are a must. To contain dust levels, a regular water supply at all drilling points has to be ensured and should there be a power or water supply failure, the tunnel can be one nasty place to be in.

"One is left gasping for fresh air,” says Kumar Lama, who has hardened working in the tunnel for two years. "And then all the while there is danger about sudden rock fall lurking around. Safety standards adopted are high and not one worker has even been injured while I have been around,” he says.

February 8, 2011 was a momentous day for tunnel construction. SJVNs top brass converged into one section of the tunnel in order to perform the last blast ceremony between two reaches of the tunnel. This controlled explosion successfully breached one last rock layer and successfully joined an upstream tunnel section of Kajo Adit with a downstream one of Left Bank. Managers, Engineers and Workers together rejoiced the moment.

"It was a day to celebrate,” the project head recalls. A continuous stretch of 7.7 Kms of tunnel had been achieved. Much hard work in investigation, designing and precision in execution was involved to get there, he said.

Belying perceptions about heavy explosives used to blast through the hardened rock, modern hydro-tunneling techniques rely on highly controlled synchronized blasting that has maximum impact and releases with minimum sound and vibrations into the surroundings.

The project head explains, "not conventional but powder laden explosives are laid in co-centric circles into the targeted area that explode in a sync, one after another when triggered. The sound and the vibration of the explosion released into the surroundings does not cause any damage to even those buildings that are in close vicinity. "This fact has been corroborated by scientific studies carried-out by accredited institutions of international repute,” says the project head.

Despite meticulous planning and exhaustive surveys, nasty geological surprises and unforeseen can derail schedules by years and even threaten the very viability of such large projects. Encountering cold or even hot water flows 180 L/sec – 350 L/sec other than slowing down progress, involves employing special chemicals to dry up patches of freshly exposed rock surfaces to channelize the water seepage area before proceeding ahead. In one section of a tunnel of the upstream 1500 MW Natpha Jhakri project, encountering hot water flows raised the temperatures inside the tunnel to a unbearable level of over 65 degree Celsius. A special ice factory had to be set up and ice blocks were used as shields to bring down temperatures so that men could work. The Rampur project too did encounter hot water flow in a tunnel section but having gained from experience the problem was surmounted. However, the all important tunnel was beset with a different set of obstacle.

Whereas geological survey had projected a ratio of 65:35 of hard (good) and soft (bad) quality rock on the tunnel path, engineers at work encountered layers of bad rock concentrated in one section (20:80) good and bad rocks leaving them struggling for solutions as targets began to slip. Tunneling in hard rock is relatively easier than in soft ones due to the fact that a freshly cut out cavity in a hard rock is more self supportive than one in soft rocks which needs additional support systems to hold the tunnel in place. To bring the project back on rails, curtailing the length of one adit( tunnel) where rock was very bad, introducing the technology of lattice girders where more flexible support system is used in place of conventional steel ribs were the solutions adopted to ensure progress and for better stability.

Introduction of an additional adit (tunnel) provided two more faces from work could be resumed and brought down delay time schedule by 2 years to position the project for commissioning by September 2013. While the additional access adit (tunnel )was beginning to show results, encountering a major cavity deep inside the mountain in this reach put the engineers and projects planners through another difficult test.

Explaining the geology of such cavity formations, a project geologist monitoring the rock structures along the tunnel route says, "Tectonic movements often cause one rock layer to fold upon another. During the process, sometimes a layer of crumpled rock gets trapped between two hard layers. When tunneling through such sections loose rocks fall through and the tunnel fails to hold.”.

The obstacle posed an engineering challenge as available heavy machinery could not be deployed and controlled blasting was of no help.

When two attempts to push the tunnel through this section failed consultants were roped in to formulate a strategy to fill the cavity with rocks and concrete so as to enable the tunnel formation to hold, so that the tunnel progress did not lag. Because of laying the tunnel through the cavity, another challenging decision was taken to bye-pass the cavity so that commissioning schedule of September 2013 could be adhered to. Falling back on a time tested multi-drift method for tunnel execution, work resumed and it took about 15 months to clear the 25 meter stretch of tunnel construction in this cavity troubled spot. Elsewhere, where good quality hard rock was available, work progressed at a brisk pace of tunneling through over 150- 175 meters of rock stretches in a month.

Where work on the main feeding tunnel slowly overcame obstacles encountered, excavation of 40 meter diameter and 150 meter vertical tunnel called surge shaft was relatively an easier task and was completed ahead of schedule. Being part of the team that started work on the vertical tunnel, Rati Ram - a 52 year old worker from Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh, gleams with pride to be there to have completed the task. Recollecting his initial days on work he says, "Descending into the pilot tunnel was considered to be fraught with risks. The camaraderie with fellow workers grew stronger as we went deeper into the tunnel making it a lifetime of experience.” Vikram, a 25 year old fellow worker from Sirmaur confesses, "When we began to descend deeper into the tunnel it did get scary at first but the safety measures undertaken soon restored confidence.”

Water after flowing through 15.177 Km in the main tunnel also called Head Race Tunnel; at the surge shaft tunnel gets diverted into three small tunnels called penstock tunnels. The three penstock tunnels are further bifurcated to drive 6 turbines at the over ground generation station in Bayal village that will have a built up capacity to generate 1770 million units of clean energy in a dependable year.

A planet sensitive to vagaries of climate change mandates usage of clean energy so as to reduce the impact on global warming. Hydropower happens to be one of the biggest generators of clean energy and run of the river projects like the Rampur project is to harness just that.

A tribute to the genius of man, tunneling remains the most challenging and critical component of executing a run of the river hydropower plant in the Himalayan region.

Muck dumping – SJVN leaving no ugly scars behind
Sensitive to the environment wherever SJVN takes up a project to execute, scientific muck dumping is a norm that the corporate has adopted for a culture, ensuring that on completion the project impact area is reclaimed, greened and no construction scars are left behind.

Hydro power projects are often blamed for two major reasons. One, for the displacement of large number of people in the areas of submergence and the work sites, and the other for the environment degradation due to dumping of muck. Truly, the related works are so enormous and voluminous that the public criticism is natural. But in case of run of river projects, the submergences are negligible while the temporary work sites are subsequently dismantled and the lands restored to the owners. Of course the underground excavations generate huge quantities of muck and their disposal becomes a real challenge. But not in cases where scientific planning is done before hand. In the case of India’s largest 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Hydro Power Project executed by SJVN Limited, the underground works were so huge and voluminous, but there is hardly any ugly trace of resultant environmental degradation.

And what to speak of the downstream 412 MW Rampur Hydro Electric Project where no dam is being constructed as the project is to work in tendem with the upstream Nathpa Jhakri Hydro Power Station. The tunneling works are also comparatively less and the power house too is partially on the surface.

Sheer scale of excavating a 10.5 meter diameter and 15.127 kilometer long tunnel, besides a 40 meter diameter and 150 meter deep vertical tunnel known as surge shaft and 3 smaller tunnels of 3.8 meter diameter and 54 meters length is enough to leave any development project with a huge logistic problem of managing millions of tons of muck.

Having successfully executed a larger project, SJVN planners of Rampur Hydroelectric project were not deterred from the very outset. Downstream of the 1500 MW Nathpa-Jhakri project on River Satluj in North India, the 412 MW Rampur Project is the second project that SJVN took up in earnest and is scheduled to be completed by September, 2013

Taking a hard look at the topography of River Sutlej Valley basin around Rampur to identify places where sterile muck could be stacked in a manner that it did not flow into the river, did not cause environmental degradation and where it could eventually be reclaimed so as not to leave any scars on the landscape.

Initial designs had estimated that a volume of 30.63 lakh cubic meters of muck from all the civil works would be generated. After re-using some of it for construction purposes space for stacking 28.18 lakh cubic meters of muck was needed to be created.

Four sites for setting up dumping yards along the project impact area were selected, land was acquired and protection structures, which included retaining walls at the edge and slopes in stone walls were constructed.

Being a responsible company that is sensitive to environmental concerns, the civil jobs contracted out mandated that no muck be dumped in the river. Strict supervision has ensured that the terms of agreement have been adhered too.

As work on the tunneling sites progressed, the muck generated slowly began to pile up at the dumping sites. Midway through the job, a geological surprise in one of the tunnel sections upset calculations.

While engineers grabbled with veering around a weak rock section that created obstacles for the tunneling to hold, project designers came up with an alternate strategy of excavating a smaller bypass access tunnel that would let work on the main tunnel progress.

Course correction changes demanded additional space for stacking 8.81 lakh cubic meters of extra muck than what had initially been expected.

It was a stroke of luck that a nearby site being developed by the Union Government of India needed to be leveled. Since they required a large quantity of muck for the purpose, a tie up with mutual benefits helped in meeting the needs of SJVN’s additional dumping requirements.

Other than muck used for leveling of a strategic site of the union government, three residents of Bayal village – Chata Ram, Amar Chand and Tara Devi approached SJVN and asked for dumping muck on their private land so that the steep gradient it had could be leveled. A quick decision was taken to use the opportunity. Besides these two new sites, some muck was also used for leveling grounds at the upcoming SJVN residential colony, across the river at Dattnagar.

Without having to buy more land SJVN management of muck disposal has not caused any environmental degradation at any site.

Strong supporting stone walls ensure that no muck spills past them. Inclined at not more than 250 angle of repose, the dumped muck at the yards has even begun to be restored and reclaimed.

The target is to green all the muck dumping sites before commissioning of the project. Applying an innovated Geo-green Erosion Control Blanket method, a pilot project at one of the yards has succeeded in putting life into the sterile soil and support saplings of trees and shrubs.

With the experimental project getting the nod from the HP State Pollution Control Board, the greening process would be replicated so as to have a green cover over the entire muck dump yards ahead of schedules.

The project has changed it all, life was never so good
Living out a retired life, Satya Devi (60), a resident of SJVN’s Jhakri resettlement colony, holds no regrets for having bartered her earlier pastoral living for the comfort of a new home at the project re-settlement colony except for missing the evening round of wool weaving, while chatting around the family hearth.

"Before the project came into our valley and the Jhakri colony was set up, life was one daily grind where the day began with lighting the hearth, working the farms lands, tending to cows and sheep, gathering fuel wood and fetching water from the village wells on our very backs,” says Satya.

Diving into the past she recalls, Jhakri was a scattered village with small houses. There was a lot of poverty around and droughts would often lead to hungry days. The richer famers who had surplus grain would barter food for work with the less fortunate.

But all that has changed today. There is prosperity around; nearly all families in the colony and the surrounding area own vehicles, something which could not have come about without the project having come up in the vicinity, she says.

To draw out a comparison the lady narrates her pastoral past. "Besides the 100 to 150 sheep, we used to have about 15 to 20 cattle heads, yet the milk supply was not sufficient. Bullocks were essential for ploughing the fields.”

There was only shop in the area that had very little provisions and everyone had to go to Rampur, to shop for clothes, utensils, farm implements, rations and many other items.

Today there are a lot of vehicles plying regularly to Rampur, which is just 13 Kms away but back then the road was not so good and only one bus used to ferry us between Rampur and Jhakri. If you missed it, one had to wait out another day to catch up again.

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Satya Devi

Rearing sheep and wool weaving was a steady vocation that kept many occupied. Homemade woolen cloth was common and garments made out of it helped to live through cold winters. There were no quilts and only homespun woolen blankets were used.

If anyone fell ill, all that we could depend upon for healthcare was once a month, door to door visit by our village compounder (a para-medic).

In contrast, today the Jhakri colony has a health centre manned by five doctors, including a dentist and is equipped with a X-ray machine and a laboratory for doing preliminary diagnostic tests.

Satya Devi’s grand children a boy and a girl who attend school at Delhi Public School, Jhakri undergo a regular health check-up at the centre. The small hospital also operates a mobile clinic that serves many of the neigbourhood villages.

Vinod Negi, son of Satya Devi and now aged 34 has been employed with SJVN for 16 years - something that has enabled the family to gracefully cope up with the change in their lives.

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Vinod Negi and Wife

Being from a family whose lost most of their farmlands to the project, Vinod says, "As I turned 18, after completing school, the Jhakri project authorities provided me a placement that has helped our family to move up along with others.”

Gracious in hospitality - after having sipped the cup of tea served with rich snacks, Satya concludes, "the project has changed it all; life was never so good. However, at times, I do miss my old days of wool weaving by the evening log fire.”

For Ram Lal, it’s a generational leap
Having undergone a change from a laid back farming community to urbanized lifestyle, with a drive-in colony to live in, Ram Lal - a 38 year old resident of SJVN’s resettlement colony, could not have asked for more in a generation.

"It was an uncertain future, when my father Tushu Ram’s (aged 60 years) land was acquired for setting up the Jhakri project in the early 1990’s,” he recalls.

Being from a family of generation to generation farmers and suddenly finding the small Jhakri community staring at a condition of being rendered without any land holding could have been traumatic but for the resettlement and rehabilitation policy implemented by SJVN for the project affected people.

Firmly planted in the company’s policy was the condition that none of the project affected family would be left defenseless or rendered landless.

Those who would lose their entire land holding towards setting up of the project infrastructure would be rehabilitated and resettled with a built up house and provided with a sustenance level minimum land holding.

Ram Lal is one such beneficiary. "Life before the Jhakri project came up, on the surface appeared simpler underneath was harsh, for one was constantly grappling with poverty,” he says.

Living in the resettlement colony built under the resettlement and rehabilitation initiatives of SJVN, the entire family of Tushu Ram today has road connectivity, round the clock flowing water, and access to good education and healthcare.

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Ram Lal Colony Resident

Being one of the 45 families that surrendered all their land holdings for the project needs, the project authorities in return bought private land and allocated land to Tushu Ram and others, such that each one today has a minimum of 5 bigha land holding.

The local Jhakri market provides a ready market where the family can sell all surplus produce that the farm lands grow.

One of the two son’s of Tushu has even been provided a regular job by SJVN. Rehabilitating a most affected project family with a regular job has also become part of the company’s social responsibility regular charter.

"Because of SJVN, today I’m able to educate my son at Delhi Public School, Jhakri, which is more than what my father could afford for me,” says Ram Lal.

Green carpet landscapes
To reclaim the landscape at a project construction site, like that at the muck dump yard for Rampur project, SJVN out of its concern for the environment has introduced the Geo-green Erosion Control Blanket, so as to enable vegetation taking early hold in gripping the deep excavated soil together.

Made out of coconut fiber, these blankets not only retain water for longer periods but over a time period gradually biodegrades naturally to fully blend with the soil conditions.

Rock soils and other mud dug out from deep tunnels for the projects are normally sterile towards vegetative growth till weathering over a long period of time enables plant growth at the muck dump yards.

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For natural regeneration to reclaim such extreme soil conditions, vegetation requires at least two, if not more growing seasons to succeed.

To over the problems of re-vegetation, to stabilize slopes and to check erosion, undulation of the dump yard slopes are first leveled before a layer of fertile top soil is laid over it.

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To prepare a rich top soil, ready to use soil preparations are imported, mixed at a 60:40 ratio with existing soils and manure is added to obtain a healthy and plant nutritious soil layer.

Seeds of locally prevalent plants are mixed into the top layer before a Geo-green Erosion Control Blanket is laid out on the slope.

Besides the seeds planted, cutting and plants of species such as Hopseed (Mehndu) - Dodonaea viscosa, Silver Oak- Grevillea robusta, Bougainvillea and Subabul- Leucaena leucocephala are planted onto the treated slopes.

After the regular watering of six months, traces of the existing muck dump yard fade away as the slope turns green and blends into the landscape.

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The Geo-Green Erosion Control Blanket product is made from biodegradable coconut fibers, reinforced with high density poly-euthrene (HDPE) for enhancing strength to withstand steep slope and different climatic conditions.

The green blanket is designed and developed to provide solutions to erosion control problems and slope stabilization.

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