Jammu: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said the Baglihar Hydroelectric Project (BHEP) stage-II would generate an average annual income of about Rs 500 crore by producing over 1,300 Million Unit (MU) of energy. He said the state government had launched a number of power projects for execution and many were in the pipeline to achieve the target of generating over 4000 MW of power during the next five years. The Chief Minister, who visited the project at Chanderkote in Ramban district, inspected various units, including the dam, which is common for the stage one and two of the BHEP. He was accompanied by Principal Secretary of the Power Development Department Sudhanshu Pandey and J&K Power Development Corporation Managing Director Basharat Ahmad Dar. Omar was briefed about the status of the implementation of the Baglihar stage-II. He was told that the contracts for civil, hydro-mechanical and electro-mechanical works were signed on March 31. Pre-commencement works, besides some essential works of stage-II, are under execution. Omar underlined the importance of construction of hydroelectric projects in the state to harness its vast hydroelectric potential and achieve self-sufficiency in energy generation. An official spokesperson said Rs 673 crore had been incurred on the second stage of the BHEP till July, 2012. The stage first of 450 MW was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the project started commercial generation of power from April 1, 2009. Since its inception, the power plant has generated 10,724.06 MU of energy by August 2012 worth Rs 4,027.450 crore against an expenditure of Rs 5,506.30 crore. The financial closure for the BHEP stage-II is being achieved after signing a loan agreement with the Power Finance Corporation of India for Rs 1,679.23 crore and Rs 500 crore with the J&K Bank. The completion cost of the project is likely to be Rs 3,113.19 crore. The balance amount of Rs 933.966 crore will be met by the state.