Nod Sought For Almatti Hydel Project

Promoters of the $1.2 billion 1,200 mw Upper Krishna power project have sought the Karnataka government's permission to start the first phase of the plant even as the Supreme Court referred the controversial issue of raising the height of the Almatti Dam to a Constitution Bench.

According to sources in the Chamundi Power Corporation, promoters of the project, a plea has been made for commencing the first phase involving setting up of a 300 mw power station to be built at the Almatti Dam as per the "agreeable" height of the dam.

Considered to be one of the biggest hydel power plants so far, the project has been hanging fire because of the dispute over the height of the dam between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Chamundi Power Corporation is promoted by a consortium of foreign companies in association with the G P Goenka group. The consortium comprises AsiaPower Developments, Kvaerner Boving and Tapco.

The promoters have already received most of the clearances for the project. Kvaerner Boving has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract. Kvaerner Boving has supplied turbines and associated equipment for the 480 mw Uri project in Jammu & Kashmir and the 1,500 Jakri project in Himachal Pradesh.

The lead bankers of the project is ANZ Grindlays. The project's debt-equity ratio is 70:30 with AsiaPower Developments contributing 74 per cent of the equity and the G P Goenka group contributing 26 per cent. Rest of the project cost will be raised from foreign and domestic financial institutions. The promoters are already negotiating with British Overseas Development Fund, ICICI and IDBI.

The project will be completed in two phases. Phase one consists of building a 300 mw power station at the Almatti Dam while the second phase consists of building a series of smaller power stations in a 810 mw cascade scheme between the Naryanpur Dam and Tamankal. The power project will use the concept of four smaller powerhouses of roughly equal size in a run-of-the-river cascade below the Naryanpur Dam.

The controversy over the Almatti Dam consists of whether Karnataka should be allowed to increase its height. While lower riparian Andhra Pradesh claims that by increasing the height of the dam, Karnataka will impound water in excess of its allocated share, Karnataka claims that the impounded water will be let into the river after using it for generating hydel power.

While Karnataka says it will not use more than its share of water, Andhra Pradesh says the mere availability of water in the dam could lead to unauthorised use. Hence, Andhra Pradesh argues that by raising the dam height, Karnataka will use more water than it is entitled to.