Assam expresses concern over growing fly-by-night private players in North East

Assam today expressed concern at the growing trend of fly-by-night private players venturing into the power generation sector of North East, especially in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Assam government feel that many private companies were venturing into North East and signing memorandum of understanding (MoU) just to “expand their portfolios” to “boost the share prices of the company” at stock exchanges.

“Today there is a beeline of private companies. They all want to come to Arunachal Pradesh, sign MoU with the government to put up power projects. But, we don’t want that there should be a convergence of fly by night operators. We know that in Arunachal Pradesh hundreds of MoUs are being signed but no one is doing any effort to actually commission or build those project. Why are they sitting on those projects? Are they trying to expand their portfolio to boost their share prices in the stock exchanges,” said Pradyut Bordoloi, Assam’s power minister.  

Bordoloi added: “Yes we need to generate more power, and I firmly believe that the private sector has a big role to play.” He also said that the private sector should also venture into distribution sector rather than confining themselves in generation sector.

Bordoloi was speaking at a conference ‘Powering North East India’ jointly organised by Independent Power Producers’ Association of India (IPPAI) and Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER). It is estimated that the North Eastern Region has the potential to generate around 60,000 MW of hydro power, which amounts to India’s 40 per cent of total hydro power potential.