Construction of Dams along Borders

The Foreign Minister of Bangladesh in her letter addressed to External Affairs Minister dated 13th December, 2012 had raised the issue of construction of two dams for hydro power projects in Meghalaya namely Mawphu and Myntdu across the rivers Umiew and Myntdu respectively. The issue of TipaimukhHydel Power Project has also been raised by the Bangladesh side. The two Projects, Mawphu HEP Stage-II in East Khasi Hills and Myntdu HEP Stage-II in West Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya have been investigated for a planned installed capacity of 75 MW and 280 MW respectively. The Tipaimukh Hydro Electric Project (THEP) was planned on river Barak for an installed capacity of 1500 MW in Manipur. However, the planning of THEP is under revision after MOEF denied the forest diversion proposals in Mizoram and Manipur for the project. The Foreign Minister of Bangladesh in her letter mentioned above had stated that since both Umiew and Myntdu are common rivers between Bangladesh & India, a Joint Study Group under the Joint River Commission (JRC) may be formed for doing a thorough assessment of the impact of the projects on Bangladesh. Our Mission at Dhaka, vide Note Verbaledated August 29, 2013, had formally conveyed to the Bangladesh side that the issue of dams in Meghalaya was discussed in the Foreign Office Consultations and Joint Consultative Commission Meetings held in Dhaka in February 2013, wherein, it was conveyed that these projects were envisaged to be Run-of-River type and would not affect the flow of the rivers. Additional information on these two dams was also provided to the Bangladesh side. For Tipaimukh project, a sub-group under JRC had been formed and since then two meetings of the sub-group have taken place. Government has made constant efforts to take up more power projects in North-Eastern States including in Manipur and Meghalaya to protect them from the power crisis. These States have also been advised to tie up power supply arrangements to meet their requirements, based on their anticipated demand supply scenario. During the 12th Plan, capacity additions of 268.50 MW for Meghalaya and 136.50 MW for Manipur from conventional sources are planned. In this regard, North-Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) on 28.08.2014 signed Pre Implementation Agreement with Government of Manipur for DPR preparation and subsequent development of four hydro projects in the State namely Pabram (190MW), KhongnemChakha (67MW), Irang (60MW) and Tuivai (51MW). The PFRs of these projects supplied by the State Government are now being updated for DPR preparation. In Meghalaya, NEEPCO is preparing the DPR of Mawphu HEP Stage-II (75 MW), which is in the final stage of completion. Further, NEEPCO is also pursuing with the State Governments to take up more projects for power development. This information was given by Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti in a written reply in Lok Sabha today. Samir/jk

Construction of Dams along Borders

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