Maheshwar power project on track

The controversial Maheshwar power project has no controversy now. The state government is expecting the project to start generating power by 2010. “There is no issue left for the project,” said SPS Parihar, secretary, department of energy.

The power project, which is a run-of-the river project, is being constructed on downstream of the Indira Sagar project and will churn out 400 Mw (65x8) of power. “There are 27 spill ways and 23 of them are complete at the project. The company has said the work has been completed and the construction of the rest of the spill ways will start soon. We are expecting that the project will start generating power by 2010,” he said.

Earlier the government had said Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Project to be completed before 2009.

The Rs 2,450-crore project had been in controversies due to social issues, rehabilitation of the oustees. The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) had raised social issues on number of occasions. Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and HUDCO have funded the project. Madhya Pradesh is facing a power supply-demand gap of 1,000-1,500 Mw and the project is crucial for it to meet the power outage during peak hours. It took years for the government to get the work resume on the project.