Top official favours hydel projects

Ahead of the Ganga river basin authority’s meeting to decide the fate of hydel projects on the Bhagirathi in Uttarakhand, R Chidambram, Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the government, yesterday favoured the construction of such dams in order to maintain 8-10 per cent growth in the country.

“If we have to grow by 8-10 per cent, the industry, which is growth intensive, must also grow at a faster pace for which we need power from hydro, nuclear and all other resources,” said Chidambaram.

“The hydel projects should be allowed to be built,” he said when asked specifically to comment on the controversial issue of constructing hydel projects on Bhagiarathi and other tributaries of the Ganga.

Chidambram’s comments assume significance in view of recent decision by a group of union ministers to scrap two key hydel projects – 480 Mw Pala Maneri and 381 Mw Bhaironghati on Bhagirathi. However, a final decision on the issue is yet to be taken by the Ganga river basin authority which is expected to hold its meeting in this regard shortly.

Chidmabram also said the country would need 1 million Mw of power by 2050 in order to maintain the healthy growth rate of 8-10 per cent. Out of that, nearly half of the energy (around 0.5 million Mw) would come from nuclear projects, he said. In this regard, the country would go ahead with its ambitious programme to build more nuclear projects as uranium was now easily available from the foreign countries, he said.

Chidambram said he was looking forward to prepare a new model for the overall development of rural areas in the country with the active involvement of ex-servicemen. The country is having a large number of retired personnel from armed forces, who are skilled, disciplined and familiar with handing equipments.

“We have held a brainstorming session with top NGOs like HESCO to develop this model in order to give boost to the development in rural areas,” he said.

In this regard, he said the central institutes like RuTAG and BARC would also be involved.