NHPC expects to sort out Parbati dispute in 2 months

The country's largest hydro power generation company NHPC expects in the next two months to sort out contractual issues at its Parbati project in Himachal Pradesh, which has been hanging fire since 2007.

"In a couple of months, we will be able to take a call on the contractual dispute at the 800-MW Parbati project in Himachal (Pradesh)," NHPC CMD ABL Srivastava told PTI, adding that some solution is expected in the near future.

The work at the Parbati project has been stalled on account of the poor geological strata of the area, as well as a dispute with the civil and tunnel boring contractor, Robbins.

NHPC has time and again been rapped by the Power Ministry for not executing the projects in time.

However, the company in its defence has always maintained that it is the environment or the local issues pertaining to hydro projects that have marred the progress of its plants.

There has been a delay in the execution of the 800-MW Parbati-II (Himachal Pradesh), 2,000-MW Lower Subansiri (Arunachal Pradesh), Teesta Low Dam III (130 MW) and IV (160 MW) in West Bengal and 231-MW Chamera-III project in Himachal Pradesh.

While geological issues have delayed the Chamera project in Himachal Pradesh, local agitations have obstructed construction work at Subansiri and Teesta.

Law and order problems in Jammu & Kashmir have adversely impacted work on the company's three projects in the state.

NHPC is constructing Uri-II with a capacity of 240 MW, Nimmo Bazgo (45 MW) and Chutak (44 MW) in J&K.

These three projects in J&K were earlier scheduled to be commissioned during the current XI Five-Year Plan (2007-12), but now these projects are likely to miss their commissioning schedule.

NHPC, which has an installed capacity of over 5,300 MW, plans to ramp up this capacity to over 10,000 MW by the end of the current XI Five-Year Plan (2007-2012).