Arunachal Pradesh allots Subansari Middle project to a joint venture.



Private companies have started gaining a major foothold in the power sector of Arunachal Pradesh. The country’s largest hydroelectric power generation company NHPC’s plan of coming up with a 1600 MW (8 x 200 MW) Subansiri Middle project has been shattered.

The Arunachal Pradesh government has reportedly informed NHPC that the Subansiri Middle project on Kamla River has been allotted to a joint venture of Hydro Development Corporation of Arunachal Pradesh and Jindal Power. The cost of the project is around Rs 6406.18 Crore. It has also asked the company to hand over important data pertaining to the project. The company has already prepared the detailed project report. NHPC has sought the intervention of the power ministry in this regard. This decision is likely to severely affect the NHPC’s plan of scaling its generation capacity to over 20,000 mw by 2020 from about 6,000 mw now.

Sources in the power ministry said that top officials from NHPC have written to the ministry stating that “NHPC is capable and ready to complete DPR and subsequent execution of Subansiri Middle and Subansiri Upper (2,000 mw) hydroelectric projects. It would not be fair at this stage if any of these projects are allotted to independent power projects (IPPs),”

NHPC is already constructing the 2,000 mw Lower Subansiri project. It has identified 6 projects with a capacity of 10,000 mw in the state.

Already the Arunachal Pradesh government and the Jindal Group have agreed to jointly develop the 4500 MW Etalin multi-purpose hydro-electric project. This project is believed to be biggest power project in the country.

Sources said, “Already a MoU has been inked and a joint venture company had been registered in June this year to implement the project. The corporation will have a 26 per cent stake in the project.”

Work on the detailed project report is underway. The power project was earlier supposed to be developed by the power utility, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

The project is located in the Lower Dibang valley on the Dibang River in the border state. In 2006 the state government signed an agreement for the development of about 10, 230 MW of hydro power with PSU including NHPC and North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO). According to an estimate Arunachal Pradesh has the potential to generate around 50,000 MW of power.

Site of the Lower Subansiri Power Project
However with several environmental groups opposing mega dams in North East India, the power ministry will soon initiate a comprehensive study on the river basin of the North East region. The study will be carried by an agency to ascertain the impact of power projects.

Union Power Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde will be visiting the site of the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri power project along the Assam-Arunchal border shortly. Some NGOs are protesting against the project.

With massive work required to implement a series of power projects in the North East, National Power Training Institute (NPTI) has set up a full fledged training institute in Guwahati. Mr. Shinde while inaugurating the new NPTI building in Guwahati recently said, “India has got huge potential in the power sector in respect of power generation and trained manpower. Countries like U.S.A, China and Russia, which were not ready to talk to India earlier are approaching the Government of India and are trying to start up dialogues with their countries regarding the power sector.”

He added, “In the next two years, we will be requiring more young people and technical back up to run power projects in the country and institutes like the National Power Institute will serve this purpose. The Government of India’s first priority in the power sector is to generate employment. To get the trained manpower, the Government of India has decided to lay the foundation stone of the Training Institute before the starting of any power project in any region so that within the gestation period of any project, trained manpower of the area would be rehabilitated in the project and the aspirations of the locals would be realized,”.

He informed that during the 11th plan, 70,700 MW power would headed to installed capacity. “We want to increase the per capita availability to1000 units per year. Presently the installed capacity is 1, 50,000 MW and North East states are facing a shortage of power supply.”

H. S. Brahma, Secretary, Ministry of Power said, “We will be requiring trained manpower to construct, establish and run the power projects. By 2011 there will be huge demand for man power. We are short by 8 lakh trained man power to manage 2 lakh MW of power in the country both in the government and private sector. By 2020 as per the Government of India’s decision, 20,000 MW of power would be generated by solar power or other new and renewable energy sources.”

He added that North East sates including Sikkim will have the capacity of 20,000 to 25, 000 MW and for that the region requires almost 120 to 130 power projects in the region and the NPTI will provide the man power for all the projects. Nearly 90 percent of manpower for all projects which will be established in the power sector in the region will be provided by the NPTI.

NPTI was started in Narengi area with the small built up space provided by the Assam state Electricity Board (ASEB). Later on it was shifted to Kahilipara in Guwahati for which the Government of Assam had provided 15 acres of land. The Institute has trained 3000 officers and employees of ASEB in 4 years.