Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam and World Bank signed a $400 million loan agreement for the 412 mw Rampur hydropower project in Himachal Pradesh, on January 15, 2008. World Bank had approved the 20-year loan, which would be disbursed by its arm International Bank for Reconstruction & Development, in September last year.
The Rampur project on commissioning in January 2012 is expected to produce 1,770 million kwh of electricity annually, enough to electrify a million households, according to World Bank estimates.
The Rs 2,047 crore Rampur hydropower project is taking shape in the Kulu and Shimla districts. It will use the de-silted outflow of the upstream 1,500 mw Nathpa Jhakri project that was commissioned in May 2004 by SJVNL when it existed as Nathpa Jhakri Power Corporation. The Nathpa Jhakri power project is India's largest hydropower project in operation.
The total potential of new hydropower capacity arising largely from the outflow of the Nathpa Jhakri project is an estimated 2,000 mw, according to H.K. Sharma, Chairman & Managing Director. SJVNL's 776 mw Luhri and 800 mw Kol projects are attempts to tap this capacity, apart from the Rampur project.
While granting loan approval to the 6x68.67 mw Rampur project, World Bank had observed, "the social and environmental impacts on local communities is low compared with other plants of this size." This is mainly because the project does not envisage separate storage facilities.