With a group of ministers all set to meet on June 7 to decide the fate of NTPC’s 600 Mw Loharinag Pala hydel power project, the Centre has assured the Uttarakhand government that it would consider its demand for free power in case the three hydel projects are scrapped.The assurance came following a meeting between Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde yesterday inNew Delhi.Nishank told Shinde that the hill state should be compensated with 2,000-Mw of free power in case all the three major hydel projects were scrapped. “The meeting ended on a positive note,” said an official spokesman.Nishank also called for convening an early meeting of the Ganga River Basin Authority to decide the future of all the three hydel projects on the Bhagirathi in Uttarakashi district.
A group of ministers headed by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in March scrapped the 480-Mw Pala Maneri and 381-Mw Bhaironghati hydel projects being built by the state-run Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL) but set up a technical committee on Loharinag Pala.The technical committee had already conducted a fresh survey of the Loharinag Pala project last month. All the three projects are being opposed by environmentalists as well as sadhus and saints, who want the uninterrupted flow of Bhagirathi to continue. Meanwhile, the group of ministers is meeting in New Delhi on June 7 to decide the fate of Loharinag Pala this time.But Nishank has claimed that only the Ganga River Basin Authority, which is headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, can decide the future of these projects and not the group of ministers. “Any decision on these projects has to be taken by the Ganga river basin authority. So it is better that the centre convenes an early meeting of the authority instead of that of the group of ministers,” said Nishank.While NTPC has so far invested Rs 650-700 crore in Loharinag Pala, the UJVNL spent Rs 100 crore in Pala Maneri.
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