Deputy Chief Minister, Arunachal Pradesh Chowna Mein had a review meeting with CMDs of Central Public Sector power developers, SJVN, NHPC, THDC, NEEPCO in New Delhi on December 29 to ramp up harnessing of the 50,000 MW power potential of Arunachal Pradesh under its new revamped distribution sector scheme that ensures benefit to local communities.
The meeting was also attended by the advisor to the government HK Paliwal and commissioner hydropower, Prashant Lokhande.
In pursuant efforts of Union Minister for Power RK Singh, CMD, SJVN, Nand Lal Sharma said the MOU on five power projects in Dibang valley of Arunachal Pradesh would be signed shortly.
Sharma said these five projects are 3097 MW Etalin, 680 MW Attunli, 500 MW Emini, 420 MW Amulin and 400 MW Mihumdon, and are located in the Dibang basin of Arunachal Pradesh. He was accompanied by A.K. Singh, director (Finance), SJVN.
Arunachal has stepped up its efforts at contributing to Prime Minister’s commitment made at Glasgow COP meeting, by developing hydropower in the state. But he faced a major challenge from over 26 major tribes to bring them on board to convince them that power projects would benefit them.
Chowna Mein and SJVN assured that the tribal communities would benefit immensely from the power projects and their rights will be protected as it would bring in new prosperity from the renewable energy.
But the Dibang Resistance said the Dibang valley is an ancestral homeland of Idu and Mishmi tribes. “The Dibang river and diversion of community-owned forest land will result in tribal losing their traditional way of life”, they feared.
They said over 17 power projects being planned in the valley would consume 2.5 lakh trees. The valley is home to 75 species of mammals including clouded leopard, Asiatic golden cat, Asiatic wild dog, red panda, red ghoral and other species.
Meanwhile, Sharma stated these power projects would bring prosperity to Arunachal Pradesh and local communities as the projects entrail investment of over Rs 60,000 crore in the valley.
He said he has always been advocating the concept of integrated river Basin development approach, wherein allocation of hydro projects in one single river Basin to one Developer would enable optimum utilization of Manpower, Infrastructure and Financial Resources. This novel concept has been accepted by Government of Arunachal Pradesh in allocation of these projects, he said.
N.L. Sharma said SJVN has a proven track record of designing, constructing and operating mega projects in challenging geographic and climatic conditions.
He stated that development of these projects involving tentative investment of Rs 60,000 crore would be commissioned by SJVN in the next 8-10 years. On commissioning, these Projects are expected to generate about 20,000 Million Units of clean energy annually on cumulative basis,
Detailed Projects Reports of some of these projects have already been prepared while some Projects are in under survey and investigation stage.
Sharma said with allotment of these projects, SJVN shall have significant footprint in the North Eastern Region of the country enabling SJVN to be part of development process of the region.
He expressed gratitude to Ministry of Power, Govt. of India and Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh for giving opportunity to SJVN for development of Hydroprojects and become a partner in overall prosperity of the state.
Deputy Chief Minister assured full support of his government for execution of these projects. SJVN is a leading power CPSE having a diversified portfolio in the field of Hydro, Solar, Wind, Thermal and Power Transmission across India and neighboring countries of Nepal and Bhutan.
Sharma said SJVN has seen exponential growth in recent years and now has 41 projects under various stages of development with a capacity of more than 16000 MW. SJVN has set an ambitious target to achieve installed capacity of 5000 MW by 2023, 12000 MW by 2030 and 25000 MW by 2040, he said.
(Kuldeep Chauhan, Editor, HimbuMail, with inputs from Dibang)
