Arunachal Pradesh Setting-up Agreement with NEEPCO for Developing Power Projects

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh is all set to ink a joint venture agreement between North East Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) and Hydro Power Development Corporation of Arunachal Pradesh Limited (HPDCAPL) for constructing three mega power projects in the state. Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein convened an important meeting on Monday virtually with NEEPCO's Chief Managing Director V K Singh, for the development of 3750 MW Siang Upper, 330 MW Kurung Dam and 90 MW New Meling hydro-electric projects in the state

Developing Power Projects in Arunachal Pradesh

Mein, who also holds the hydropower portfolio, said that though the state has more than 1/3rd hydro-power potential of the country, however, 98 per cent of it remained untapped due to various reasons.

Stating that Arunachal depends on the Centre for 90 per cent of its budget requirement, the deputy chief minister said that all efforts are on to enhance state's internal revenue by harnessing its resources and hydropower could be the main revenue earning source for the state, an official communiqué informed.

"With constant support from the Centre, the state government is planning to develop big as well as small hydroelectric projects and efforts are also on to revamp the development of Dibang Multi-Purpose and Lower Demwe projects in the state," Mein disclosed.

The deputy chief minister further informed that the previous governments in the state had allotted 168 projects to private power developers and PSUs aggregating to nearly 46,000 megawatts.

However, due to failure to take off the projects by some of the power developers, the state government has terminated many such projects, Mein said adding, the government has started allocating such terminated projects to CPSUs and two projects namely, 120 MW Nafra and 90 MW New Meling projects have already been decided to be allotted to NEEPCO.

Terming NEEPCO as a partner in the hydropower development of the state, Mein urged the NEEPCO CMD to start the work on Kameng Basin projects namely Nafra and New Meloing HEPs as early as possible.

He also urged the power company to sort out the impediment in the implementation of the 330 MW Kurung project by sitting across the table. The memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the project was signed in 2015.

Advisor to the minister, Balo Raja who was also present in the meeting, assured NEEPCO to look into the security of the officials and any kind of local issues in connection with the implementation of the Kurung project and sought for its early commencement.

The meeting also discussed the 1800 MW Kamala project in the Kamle district being implemented by Jindal Power Limited.

The project which was initially started in the year 2012, deteriorated since 2014 and has lapsed even after 12 years of signing its memorandum of understanding (MoU).

Mein asked HPDCAPL Chairman Toko Onuj to act as nodal officer for liaisoning with Jindal Power Ltd, SJVN and NEEPCO on Kamala, Kurung, New Meling and Etalin projects for acquisition and merger and equity participation.

The meeting was also attended by Kamle MLA Tarin Dakpe, Advisor to state government Dr H K Paliwal, Power Commissioner Prashant Lokhande and CE Hydro Power Development (Monitoring) R K Joshi R K Joshi among others.

Also Read: NEEPCO Temporarily Stopped Discharge of Excess Water from Ranganadi Dam

Also Watch: