Karbi Langpi power project may finally take off

AMTERENG, April 5: The much-delayed Karbi Langpi Hydro Electric Project (KLHEP) of the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) at Hatidubi here on the lower Borpani river, about 120 kilometre away from Guwahati, seems to be moving towards completion after more than two decades when work began on the project with a Rs 125 crore loan from the Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFCL). Conceived in 1979 as a 'prestigious project' for the ASEB at an initial estimated cost of Rs 36.36 crore for producing 100 MW of power from two units, the projects cost has now escalated to a whopping Rs 251 crore. Already, an amount of Rs 125 crore has been spent so far. The project work was initiated with Rs 7.50 crore from the government. Chairman of ASEB Riazul Hussain, during a field visit to the project yesterday, informed accompanying media persons that the revival plan expenditure for the project has been estimated at Rs 178 crore. The remainder of the money after the PFCL loan would come from the State government. The loan amount is expected in a matter of few days once the State government provides the guarantee for the money. Interest for the loan is pegged at 10 per cent (15 per cent for States outside the region) to be spread over a period of 15 years. The KLHEP had its share of problems as the Sibson India Limited had at the very initial phase failed to construct even the coffer dam - which is temporary dam for constructing the main dam - for several years. Following this delay the project was handed over to the Shubhash Marketing and Projects under the name of Bharat Hydro Power Corporation Limited along with the shares of the State government and the ASEB. But after a long and tedious legal battle, the ASEB was given responsibility for completion of the remaining portions of the project, and ASEB, in turn, engaged Gammon India Limited for construction of the main dam at a cost of Rs 64 crore and the work began from last April. Chief engineer (civil), P Handique informed that the target for completion of the dam has been set at September, 2003, and added that another six months would be needed for commissioning the machinery which were bought from Fuji and Sumitomo for the Rs 25 crore way back in 1982. Technical experts from these two companies would be here by next month for checking out and making the machinery ready for commissioning at a supervision fees of about Rs 7 crore. Handique further said that once production get started in full swing, on an average Rs 7 crore would be generated per month by the ASEB. Poor generation: ASEB chairman, Hussain, pointed out that a total of just 150 MW of power was generated by all the running plants of the ASEB across the State as against a power requirement of 550 MW daily in the State. The rest is procured from the NTPC, NEEPCO, NHPC and the MeSEB whenever possible. He was optimistic that with the commissioning of the KLHEP, the situation would improve a great deal. BTPS deal: On the debate over the proposals from the Ogden Power Corporation of the USA for recommissioning the Bongaigaon Thermal Power Station (BTPS), Hussain informed that the ASEB has been revising the Ogden proposal to make it ASEB-friendly. "We are insisting that we would buy only that much amount of power as we would require on a day-to-day basis and Ogden would be free to sell the remaining power in the open market," Hussain said, and added: "this would definitely be in our favour instead of the one that we would have to buy the entire amount of power irrespective of requirement and compensating Ogden even for power generation during holidays and public bandhs." "The ASEB has approved these proposals and the State government has to finally approve it now," he added. Load security: The chief commercial manager of the ASEB at the KLHEP site, informed that the load security for customers were taken for compensating the Board's finances during the intervening period between serving of a bill to the customer and the time he actually pays the bill. "We do not want any discrimination among our customers and so we are imposing it on all of them with retrospective effect," he said. However, the chairman of the board assured that he would take up the matter at the next board meeting. Mandays lost: The project-in-charge of the KLHEP informed that since January this year, a total of 28 mandays have been lost due to bandhs called by various groups and political parties in the district. The figure rises to an abnormally high of 40 days since November of 2000. He said that things have been adversely affected by such a bandh culture.