NE's hydro power potential if exploited fully will boost the region's GDP: Ahluwalia

Deputy Chairperson of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, today made a strong case for exploiting the "enormous" hydro power potential in North-East. He said if the hydro power potential of the region was fully exploited; that would not only benefit the country but would also boost the GDP (gross domestic product) of the region.

"This is a region which has enormous hydro power potential. The surplus power that this region will produce will not only benefit the country but, frankly speaking, the amount of money that this projects will generate for the region would be equally enormous," said Ahluwalia here today.

He said every 1,000 MW of surplus power could generate revenue of the scale of Rs 650 crore annually. "Roughly every 1,000 MW of power generated will generate revenue of the scale of Rs 650 crore every year.

Now think if we can generate 50,000 MW how much revenue it can generate and in terms of income flow the value would be quite large," he added. The total hydro power generating potential of the region is estimated to the tune of around 55,000-60,000 MW.

He said the state governments should facilitate atmosphere for private players to come and exploit the hydro power potential of North-Eastern region.However, the mood amongst common people in Assam is strongly against setting up of any mega-power project in Arunachal Pradesh.

The fear is of perceived threat of submergence of riparian areas in downstream Assam due to flash floods, coupled with the threat to the surrounding ecology and the possibility that the dam would collapse in future in the event of earthquake as it is being constructed on a highly unstable seism-tectonic geological structure. Post Uttarakhand tragedy last year, this view has further gained support in Assam. At the receiving end of anti-dam protests has been the 2,000 MW Lower Subansiri project, being implemented by public sector giant NHPC Ltd. Since December 2011, civil work at the project site has been under suspension after an Assam-based social organisation, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS), laid a siege of the project site and imposed an economic road-blockade. Several attempts in recent past to either forcibly ship equipments to construction site and start the civil work or to impress upon the agitating groups through meetings to call off their opposition did not yield any result.The Arunachal Pradesh, where most of the mega hydro power projects are located, is however in favour of implementing the projects.

The state had in recent past signed more than 150 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with various private as well as government-owned players for execution of various hydro-power projects.