Uttarakhand to review its power policy

After cancelling all the bids under the self-identified process, the Uttarakhand government has decided to thoroughly review its power policy before re-initiating the bidding process.

The opposition parties led by the Congress had been seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the controversial deal in which hydel projects were allotted to some liquor and unknown companies alleged in violation of the 2008 power policy. The government had maintained that there were certain flaws in the advertisement which led to the cancellation of all bids.

One big flaw was that the all the bidders did not submit the detailed project reports (DPRs), a top official said. But it is not clear, whether the government will make DPRs mandatory as and when fresh bids are invited. “Preparing a DPR is not an easy task. Besides big investments (around Rs 60,00,000 for small projects), sometimes it takes one or two full years to complete the DPR of a hydel project, since the hydrological data regarding rivulets are not available,” said the official. All these self-identified projects are not on the main-stream rivers.

While cancelling the projects last week, the government had said the Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL), which was the nodal agency for the bidding process, has been asked to modify the advertisement of July 25, 2008 for inviting bids for the self-identified projects. However, the UJVNL is yet to receive an official communication from the government in this regard. “The government will take a thorough review of the power policy before re-advertising for the new bidding process,” said the official.

The decision to cancel the process was taken by a high-powered committee under the chairmanship of the secretary energy, Utpal Kumar Singh. After carefully studying the objections which had come after the allotment of 56 hydel projects, the committee found there were flaws in the advertisement.

Under the 2008 power policy, the government had received 741 bids for setting up hydel projects upto 25 Mw. Early this year, the government quietly allotted 56 hydel projects with a capacity of 960 Mw to different companies. Hours before the matter was to come before the High Court, the government abruptly cancelled the whole bidding process.