IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2020 - 95

and Kashmir would work the alluvial
section of the riverbed. The floating
electrical substation required for the operation (Figures 7 and 8) was towed to
the work area and anchored. Temporary
lines ran from it to the nearby overhead
transmission network.
The enthusiasm of the vast ga thering along the riverbank was intense. Maharaja and Younghusband
proceeded to the dipper dredge Himalaya (Figure 5) on the powerful
steam tug Canada, which was named
by the large team of experts who
worked on the scheme and hailed
from that country. The day's proceedings went off without a hitch.
Himalaya was the first dredge in
the world to be electrically operated.
It handled a 4-yd 3 dipper and was
capable of digging loose rock to a
depth of 22 ft below the water level.
The vessel was used to remove the
boulder barrage that stretched for a
distance of roughly 2 mi through
riverbed below Baramulla. Less than
half the power (2,200 hp) generated
from Mohra powerhouse was going to
be spent on the dredging scheme. The
dipper dredge had done a wonderful job, making its way through the
rocks by breaking off some boulders
weighing more than 31,000 lb. The
dredges worked day and night. The
maximum length of the river bottom
that could be dredged each day was
approximately 200 ft. Where the bottom was found to be exceptionally
hard, only 30-50 ft of progress could
be made. The dam at Khadanyar was
lowered by 12 ft, and the dredging
was conducted to make the new bed
with a slope.
The dredging operations started in
1908 and continued until 1916. The
entire river width was not dredged;
the work varied from place to place as
necessary. Wide and shallow channels
were converted into narrow and deep
ones. The material removed from the
river was deposited on the banks. Officials realized that the dredging would
not be of much help unless the valley's
drainage discharge capacity, i.e., the
outfall channel, was increased. The
september/october 2020

figure 7. The floating substation used for dredging. (From B. C. Chatterjee, The
Hydro-Electric Practice in India, vol. 1, p. 268. Benares, 1936.)

dredging of the outfall channel therefore began in 1917 and continued until
1926; since then, no dredging has been
performed, although the original idea
was not to dispense with the dredging fleet.
The total cost of the dredging scheme
was roughly 12 lakh rupees. The annual expenses, including interest,
depreciation, maintenance, establishment charges, and electric power, totaled approximately 3 lakh rupees,
and the annual revenue generated from
the reclaimed land and the savings
from avoiding relief work after floods
was roughly 5 lakh rupees. As a result of the dredging, there was an annual net gain for the state of approximately 2 lakh rupees (1 lakh rupees =
100,000 rupees; US$1 = 3.012 rupees;
£1 = 15 rupees).

ily feeding motor loads and rotary
converters for producing dc. A high
frequency was employed for systems
that had transformers and arc lights.
Where the load was to come mostly
from railways and motors, it was considered economical to generate at 25
cycles and install a rotary converter

Lighting
Electricity from Mohra was used to
light all principal streets and houses
in the city of Srinagar and its suburbs
as well as power several small mills
until 1954. The distribution substation located at Basant Bagh in the city
was served by two 2,300-V feeders
from a silk-factory receiving station.
At the beginning of electrical power
development, the choice of frequency
was based on the nature of the load. A
low frequency was utilized for systems
with long transmission lines, primar-

figure 8. The interior of the floating
substation. (From S. Orling, "The Jhelum power installation," GE Review,
vol. 12, no. 7, p. 299, July 1909.)
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