Power Panel Fails To Agree On Building Panchet Tailpool Dam
The four-member committee set up by the Union ministry of power to examine the Damodar Valley Corporations proposal to abandon a hydel power project on the Bengal-Bihar border has failed to reach a consensus.
The committees chairman, Rajendra Singh, former member, hydel, Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and D V Khare (CEA chief engineer, hydel) are in favour of constructing the tailpool dam portion of the Panchet reversible pumped turbine hydel power project even if the cost of power is abnormally high.
The two other members Dilip K Bose, the former secretary to the department of science and technology, West Bengal and senior DVC official A Roy Chowdhury accepted the valley corporations view that the project, which was conceived in 1978, has now become unviable for the corporation.
The four members unanimously agreed that either Bihar or Bengal could be asked to take up the project from the corporation. However, it is highly unlikely that either state will come forward to salvage the project.
The Damodar Valley Corporation is jointly owned by the Centre and the Bengal and Bihar governments. Its board, which comprises representatives from all three co-owners, recently decided to abandon the tailpool dam.
The main reasons for the corporations decision were the serious law and order problems at the project site as well as a political agitation demanding jobs for the families affected by the project.
The dam would have enabled the corporation to recycle the water released while operating the two 40 mw hydel power generating units at the Panchet project.
The released water was to be held back in the tailpool dam constructed several kilometers downstream of the river. The same water could be pumped back into the main reservoir during lean demand hours to operate the hydel units.
Singh and Khera felt that no hydel project should be abandoned in view of the countrywide power shortage.
The cost was immaterial as the potential economic loss due to the shortage was costlier, they argued.
On the other hand, the corporation pointed out that the tailpool dam was estimated to cost Rs 3 crore when the project was first taken up in 1978.
But, with just 13 per cent of the work complete, it would take at least Rs 50 crore more and three working seasons to complete the dam.