Arunachal approves allotment of two power projects to National Hydroelectric Power Corporation

ITANAGAR: The Arunachal Pradesh government has approved the allotment of two projects, the 2000 mw Subansiri Upper Hydro project and the 1800 mw Kamala project, to state-run hydropower giant National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Ltd. The government conveyed the information of approval of the projects to NHPC on Friday, a senior official of the state hydropower department informed on Saturday. The Subansiri Upper project is located in Upper Subansiri district of the northeastern state on the Subansiri River, a tributary of the river Brahmaputra, while the Kamala Project, to be constructed on the Kamala River, a tributary of Subansiri, is located in Kamle district. Both projects were allotted to private power developers earlier.

The Subansiri Upper project was allotted to KSK Energy Venture Ltd. on March 18, 2010, while the Kamala project was offered to Jindal Power Ltd. on August 28, 2009, by signing memoranda of agreements (MoAs). There was no physical progress in both projects, and the power developers could do little pre-construction activities, the official said. The formal MoA signing ceremony will be held next month, where Union Power Minister Raj Kumar Singh is likely to attend. The state government has so far terminated 44 memoranda of agreement (MoAs) with various private power developers as they "showed less interest" in executing projects allotted to them. The projects that have been withdrawn from private developers would be handed over to central public sector understandings (CPSUs), and accordingly, fresh MoAs would be signed soon, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein, who also holds the power portfolio, had said recently. After the allotments, progress on many projects could not be achieved due to various reasons. Despite serving several notices to the private developers concerned, they were not inclined to execute the projects, for which 44 MoAs have been terminated," Mein had said.

The state government is regularly pursuing the matter of hydropower development with the Centre, and as a result, the central government, in its recent decision, prepared an indicative list of 29 projects, the deputy chief minister disclosed. On July 19, Mein held a meeting with the union power minister in New Delhi and discussed the progress made in various steps leading to the transfer of power projects from private developers to CPSUs and informed the minister about the headway achieved by the state government in this regard. Four CPSUs have been identified for the purpose, namely NEEPCO Ltd., NHPC Ltd., SJVN Ltd., and THDC India Ltd., the official said. The transfer process has been carefully designed in consultation with various stakeholders, including the Centre, and is set to culminate with the signing of MoAs, the official said.

The state government has decided to transfer 13 projects with an installed capacity of 12,623 MW to CPSUs, including two to NHPC, one to Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC) Ltd., five to Northeast Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) Ltd., and five to Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Ltd., respectively. The NHPC is already constructing the 2000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project at Gerukamukh in Assam-Arunachal, which is nearing commissioning, and has recently started construction of the 2880 MW Dibang Multipurpose Project on the river Dibang in the state.

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