Almost a year after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the 450 MW Baglihar power project on Chenab river in Jammu & Kashmir, the Union government is all set to push work on the second power project (Baglihar-II) on priority basis.

The high-level team comprising over a dozen Central secretaries that visited the state early this week under Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar’s leadership is learnt to have given its approval to begin preparation for phase-II of the Baglihar project. Modality of the funding from Central government is likely to be worked out soon, sources who were part of the Central team revealed.

The Baglihar-II project is likely to be of similar power capacity (450 MW) as the one commissioned last October by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Central team is also learnt to have asked the state government to prepare projects for using untapped potential from water discharge of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers.