Itanagar: The Arunachal Pradesh Cabinet in its first sitting of the year has resolved to harness the hydropower potential of the state in a sustainable manner for the benefit of the local communities, state and the nation.
Arunachal, through its hydropower, would contribute majorly towards India’s commitment of increasing non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW.
Hydropower is a major source of renewable energy and if harnessed would bring in the all-round socio-economic development of the area through massive investment in infrastructure as well as provisions such as free power, local area development fund, employment, contracts and business opportunities, social sector development such as health and education.
The Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday deliberated and finalised an action plan for unlocking this rich potential. The cabinet decided that some important stalled projects currently with IPPs will now be handed over to Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) for development.
The cabinet also decided to handover over five already terminated projects to the CPSUs namely, Naying (1000MW) and Hirong (500MW) to NEEPCO and Emini (500MW), Amulin (420MW) and Minundon (400MW) to the SJVNL for development.
These projects will see an investment of Rs 40,000 crore in the next 5-7 years and would generate green power of 2880 MW. It would also provide revenue of around Rs 500 crore per year in free power and around Rs 100 crore for local area development, the Cabinet resolved.
The Cabinet further approved the indicative procedure for transferring the stalled hydropower projects from the IPP to CPSUs in order to unlock the potential.
An action plan has been prepared to commence the work on 13 priority projects with 12343 MW capacities. This would lead to an investment of Rs 1.5 lakh crore and would provide revenue of Rs 2000 crore to the state as a free power and around Rs 350 crore per year for local area development.
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The Cabinet also approved the inclusion of one male and one female member in the Local Area Development Committee set up under the deputy commissioner for the management of the Local Area Development Fund.
It also approved that revenue generated by the state government through the free power will be invested in the government/green bonds which would be used for the development of the state.
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