Himachal Pradesh Chief Minster Prem Kumar Dhumal on Sunday said that the hill State was targeting a generation of 12,000 MW of hydro electric power in the next five years. While laying the foundation stone for a 2.5 MW private hydro electric project in Kullu, he said all environmental safeguards would be taken into consideration while executing the power projects. Chief Minister claimed that during his earlier tenure (1998 to 2003), construction work on about 10,000 MW capacity of hydro projects was started and the State was able to generate 3838 MW of hydro potential out of which 396 MW was in the State Government sector. He said 6500 MW of electricity was so far being generated and now the State was committed to generate 12,000 MW of additional power by the year 2012. Generation capacity Mr. Dhumal said that besides the big, medium and other hydro electric power projects, the State had 750 MW worth of mini and micro hydro power projects, most of which were below 5 MW. He said that out of 750 MW capacity, MoU s had already been signed for the execution of 247 mini and mico hydel projects. The Chief Minister said that 71 mini and micro hydro electric projects were identified in Kullu district alone having a generation capacity of 171.95 MW for which the implementation agreement MoU had already been signed. He hoped that 2.5 MW Sarwari mini hydro electric project would also be completed in record time.