(a) whether any meeting on hydro power projects of North-East was held
recently;
(b) if so, the discussions held and the decisions arrived therein; and
(c) the demands raised by the States in the meeting along with the reaction
of the Union Government thereto?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF POWER
(SHRI K.C. VENUGOPAL)
(a) to (c) : The third meeting of the Task Force on Hydro Project
Development was held under the Chairmanship of Hon`ble Minister of Power on
29.10.2010 in New Delhi. In the meeting issues relating to various aspects of
hydro power development in the country including the North East were
discussed. Hydro power rich states including the North Eastern States
participated in the meeting. The decision taken in the meeting is given below:-
(i) Expeditious and time bound action would be taken by the State
Governments, public utilities, concerned Central Ministries/Agencies,
etc. for fixing each inter-mediate milestones including Survey and
Investigation works, submission of Detailed Project Report (DPR),
concurrence of DPRs, award of projects by the State, approval of Terms
of Reference (ToR) for Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study,
finalisation of EIA study, Environment and Forest clearance, etc. for
accelerated development of Hydro-electric projects.
(ii) Timely advance action for hydel capacity addition of 20,000 MW in the
12th Plan would be taken by the States particularly the Himalayan States
of Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and the North
Eastern States.
(iii) As recommended by Inter Ministerial Group (IMG), sub-basin wise
environment impact assessment studies would be taken up for major
tributaries of Brahmaputra. Central Water Commission (CWC) would
conduct studies for Subansiri and Siang sub-basins in consultation with
Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and Ministry of Environment & Forests
(MOEF). TOR will be provided by MOEF and these studies would be
completed expeditiously. Studies in other sub-basins would also be
taken up subsequently by CWC and other identified agencies. Pending
completion of these studies, Central and State agencies would continue
to appraise new hydro-electric projects with a capacity of 20,000 MW for
yielding benefits during 12th Plan for grant of all the necessary statutory
and non-statutory clearances on merit as per extant procedure. Projects
of strategic importance and those in the advanced stages in the pipeline
would be accorded priority. In the meanwhile, rapid environment impact
assessment studies for sub-basins of the major tributaries of
Brahmaputra would also be completed in 6-9 months.
(iv) In view of high risk and uncertainties of hydel projects particularly
storage projects arising out of adverse geological surprises, delays in
land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) issues, law and
order problems, natural calamities etc., and as recommended by Central
Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), it was resolved that cost plus
tariff regime may be continued for public as well as private sector large-
sized hydro power projects. In the meanwhile, studies would be
conducted to work out the modalities for adoption of tariff based
competitive bidding regime even for large hydel projects. It was also
resolved that a level playing field would be provided to public sector
hydro projects by allowing merchant sale up to a maximum of 40% of the
saleable energy as provided in the New Hydro Power Policy 2008.
(v) An Inter-Ministerial Committee would be constituted under the
Chairmanship of Member (Energy), Planning Commission, consisting of
officers of Ministry of Power, MoEF, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry
of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Rural Development, Planning
Commission, CEA and CWC to examine and resolve issues impeding the
rapid development of HEPs including grant of clearances by the
governmental agencies. This Committee would make recommendations
for accelerated development of HEPs and the same would be discussed
in the next meeting of the Task Force.