NEW DELHI, Feb 27 – Uncertainty over the 2000 MW Subansiri (Lower) hydro-electricity project may be finally over with the project likely to get the all-important Cabinet Committee on Economic Affair (CCEA) clearance by next month-end. The project – part of the Prime Minister’s economic package – has been hanging in limbo for past few years caught in bureaucratic wrangles in Delhi and problems with environmental groups back in Arunachal Pradesh. But that is over with the Central government already deciding to do away with the pre-Public Investment Board (pre-PIB) clearance. The project would now go straight to the PIB for clearance.
The problems with the NGOs also nearing an end with a bio-diversity study report ready and the Ministry of Environment and Forest clearance expected by the middle of March. The project is under investment sanction for which the CCEA approval is expected by end of March. The investment sanction for the project is subject to availability of environment, forest and widlife clearances, which are expected by middle of next month. ‘The contract for main works shall be awarded immediately after Central Government sanctions and works shall be started,’ chairman-cum-Managing Director of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Yogendra Prasad disclosed here today.
The project, it may be mentioned here, was recently given the techno-economic clearance (TEC) by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) after a prolonged delay.The delay in clearance of several hydel projects had put a question mark over the performance of the NHPC forcing the CMD to write to Deputy Prime Minister, L K Advani directly breaking all protocl. The suggestion was to remove the bottlenecks doing away with the system of pre-PIB clearance.
The country which has potential of generating 1,50,000 MW of hydel power has hardly generated 26,000 MW of power. The gamble worked and the system of Pre-PIB clearance was done away with and projects now accorded TEC by CEA are directly routed to PIB for clearance. The CEA is expenditing the process of clearance and it is a good sign, he said. ‘Clearance are now coming and our pressure has started working and the Subansiri (Lower) is going to be the first project to go to the PIB directly,’ Prasad said.