GUWAHATI:
Arunachal Pradesh government has decided to transfer 14 major hydropower projects from private power developers to Central Public Undertakings (CPUs), including NHPC, NEEPCO, SJVN and THDC hydropower development in the state and the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) is due in the next month.
This was stated by deputy chief minister Chowna Mein after meeting Union Power Minister RK Singh in New Delhi on March 31 to discuss the hydropower projects.
“I am also happy to inform that the Union power minister has expressed his desire to witness the signing of MoA between GoAP and CPSUs next month in Arunachal Pradesh,” Mein tweeted after the meeting.
Mein was accompanied by the advisor to the Arunachal Pradesh government Hari Krishna Paliwal.
“14 major hydropower projects, which were earlier handed over to private developers, are yet to register visible progress to date,” Mein said.
“Of these projects, five of them had their allotment to private developers cancelled due to a lack of progress; whereas eight projects registered very limited progress that could not be substantiated with much significance,” he said.
Mein, during his meeting with the union minister, also discussed Demwe Lower Hydropower Project which has been pending in NCLT.
The deputy chief minister put forth the Arunachal Pradesh government’s expectations and commitment to these projects, highlighting the need to expedite their respective development.
After a lengthy process of transferring these projects from private developers to the CPSUs, a final stage has almost been reached, as the state cabinet approved the MoA with the CPSUs during the cabinet meeting held in Itanagar the last week.
The signing of the MoAs is scheduled to take place in April.
The Union minister highly appreciated the progress made by the state government so far in this direction and expressed his desire to personally visit Arunachal Pradesh to witness the signing of MoAs.
He further emphasized that the commencement of these projects will lead to the overall development of the state in the form of infrastructure, social and economic upliftment, and will open up many opportunities for the local people.
During the meeting, Singh also added that the development of hydropower in the state will result in a substantial rise in the income generation of the people, eventually leading to Arunachal Pradesh recording one of the highest per capita incomes in the country.
The Union minister also congratulated the deputy chief minister and his team for the significant progress made so far, while extending assurance of the Central government’s full support in the successful implementation of these projects which are to be undertaken by the CPSUs.
The state government has already terminated 44 MoAs with various private power developers for their failure to execute the projects allotted to them and offered all these projects to CPUs based on their performance and reliability,” Mein told the State Assembly on March 16.
“The state government had signed 153 MoAs with various CPSUs and Independent Power Producers (IPP) as per Centre’s Hydro Power Policy for the development of hydropower with a total installed capacity of 46,943MW,” Mein added.