Narmada authority allots hydel project to pvt firms

The Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA) has allotted a mini-hydel power project of 15 Mw capacity to a consortium of two private firms — Spert Infraweys Pvt Ltd and Splendor Resources, in Chhindwara district.

The consortium will execute, commission and operate the project and will supply 15.6 per cent of power to the state free of cost. This is the second project that the government has sanctioned in a month under its mini and small hydel power project policy.

“It was cleared in a meeting yesterday that the project will come up in Chhindwara district near Ghumarcamp village on a tributary of the river Narmada. The companies will use a 600-ft waterfall to generate power. The state will get a certain portion of power from it free of cost,” an NVDA spokesperson told Business Standard.

The project is likely to be come up in five years from now. NVDA is yet to work on various points of the project.

NVDA has also identified other mini and small hydro power sites on the Narmada river — 20-Mw Raghavpur, 35-Mw Rosra and 60-Mw Basania, to be taken up on priority basis.

Earlier last month, Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corporation (NHDC), a joint venture between the state government and National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), refused to take up three small hydel power projects of NVDA as they were not economically viable for the company.

These projects, with a combined capacity of 120 Mw, were to be constructed on the river Narmada at Handia, Boras and Hoshangabad. “The tariff was out of proportions for these power projects,” said a government source.

NVDA has two successful projects — 1,000-Mw Indira Sagar and 520-Mw Omkareshwar power projects on the river. However, both of them are facing litigations from various oustees and NGOs pertaining to raising the heights of the dams.