[ Bengia Ajum ]
ITANAGAR, 9 Aug: In a major development the government of Arunachal Pradesh is going to sign a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with four major central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) namely National Hydroelectric Power Commission (NHPC), Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN), Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDCL) and North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) for undertaking 13 number of hydropower projects in the state.
The union power minister RK Singh will be present during the MoA signing ceremony to be held here at Banquet hall on 12 August.
Of the 13 projects, the SJVN has been allotted 5 projects from Dibang basin which are Amulin HEP (420 MW), Emini (500 MW), Mihundon HEP (400 MW), Etalin HEP (3097 MW) and Attunli HEP (680 MW).
The projects allotted to NEEPCO are Tato- I HEP (186 MW), Tato-II HEP (700 MW), Naying HEP (1000 MW), Hirong HEP (500 MW) and Heo HEP (240 MW) in the Siang basin.
The NHPC will take Kamala HEP (1800 MW) and Subansiri Upper HEP (2000 MW) in the Subansiri basin while THDCL will execute Kalai- II HEP (1200 MW) in Lohit basin.
Earlier, all these projects were allotted to the private developers. The government of Arunachal Pradesh scrapped the MoAs after the developers failed to execute the project. These projects have been facing resistance from locals in certain areas especially, in the Siang basin.
In the previous MoAs the state government had 26% stake in projects Kamala, Etalin and Attunli with the Jindal Hydropower Limited.
The Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum (SIFF), along with the residents of the Siang river basin and other stakeholders has been strongly opposing hydropower projects in the Siang basin. The SIFF had filed a PIL at the Itanagar permanent bench of the Gauhati High Court in 2014, and the case was disposed of in 2022 in favour of the petitioners, with an instruction to the state government that “in the coming future, the consent and consultation must be sought from the affected locals for any such dam project.” They had also raised their concern about the mega dam during the United Nations’ Human Rights meeting held in Kathmandu (Nepal) in March this year.
