New Delhi: Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID), a Maharatna CPSU under the Ministry of Power handed over one Vaccine Delivery van, twelve ice-lined refrigerators and nine deep freezers to the district administration of Kargil today. On this occasion, Mohsin Ali, Executive Counsellor (Kargil) flagged off the Vaccine Delivery van.

The items costing ₹29 lakhs have been handed over by POWERGRID under its CSR initiative. The vaccine delivery van shall benefit residents of far-flung areas of the UT and help in achieving a greater vaccination drive. With the help of freezers, COVID-19 related and other vaccines can be stored, preserved and transported easily. It will support to tackle logistic challenges of vaccine distribution in Kargil.POWERGRID is also supporting the Ladakh region in rural electrification infrastructure in far-flung villages under various schemes of the Government of India like PMDP, DDUGJY where, in the Drass Tehsil of Kargil district one 66/11 kV Sub-station is being established, which will feed various adjoining villages and shall improve power availability. Under these schemes, POWERGRID is electrifying 23 villages costing ₹57 crores in the Kargil district. Further, under the PMDP scheme 66 kV power line network will also be strengthened at a cost of about ₹30 crores. In order to boost up the employment opportunity for local youth, POWERGRID has also planned a special recruitment drive of junior engineers specifically from the Ladakh region.POWERGRID has built a state-of-the-art 220/66 kV Gas Insulated sub-station at Kargil, which connects the region to the national grid. POWERGRID has 171,950 circuit km of transmission lines, 262 Sub-stations and more than 444,738 MVA of transformation capacity. With the adoption of the latest technological tools and techniques, enhanced use of automation and digital solutions, POWERGRID has been able to maintain average transmission system availability >99%. With the recent transfer of 220 kV Srinagar-Leh transmission systems to POWERGRID, its responsibility has increased manifold to maintain the system availability as per standards and provide reliable power to the entire Ladakh region.