Uttarakhand wants to revive hydel projects on Bhagirathi

The Uttarakhand government has told a high-powered committee that it wants to revive two hydel projects on the Bhagirathi river that were put on hold in June this year.

Following a series of meetings of the high-powered committee, set up by the Centre on the Bhagirathi issue, top officials here said that the committee has also taken a positive view that the construction of two dams — 480-Mw Pala Maneri and 380-Mw Bhaironghati — should be restarted as early as possible.

The committee also considered that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s move to declare the Ganga a national river would also have no bearing on the revival of the two projects. The suspense has grown over the fate of a series of hydel projects, which are being built over the Bhagirathi river in the hill state ever since the agitation by environmentalist GD Agrawal began in June.

Yogendra Prasad, chairman of Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (UJVNL), said the committee is likely to take a positive decision as far as the two hydel projects are concerned. UJVNL is responsible for the development of the two projects.

The Centre recently constituted the expert committee to look into various environmental concerns being raised by Agrawal and various social groups who were up in arms against the construction of hydel projects on the Bhagirathi saying its perennial flow should be maintained.

The sources here said the committee is expected to give its final report shortly.

Significantly, the work on NTPC’s 600-Mw Lohari-Nagpala project, which is being built on the Bhagirathi, is continuing. NTPC has so far invested Rs 300 crore in the project with contracts of headrace tunnel, barrage and powerhouse already being awarded to various companies.

On the other hand, UJVNL, which bore the brunt of the fast of Agrawal, said it would wait for report of the expert committee. “We can’t take any risk by restarting the construction of suspended projects. We will wait till the expert committee report comes,” said Prasad.

Buckling under the pressure of Agrawal, UJVNL in June had suspended the construction work of Pala Maneri and Bhaironghati projects.