NE hydel project clears hurdle

SILCHAR, February 17: Another hurdle in the way of the 1500-MW Tipaimukh hydel power project has been removed with tribal leaders spearheading a movement against it agreeing to the project. The Rs 3,200-crore project is the largest ever multipurpose scheme in the Northeast. Tribal leaders of a vigilante group named the Tipaimukh Hydro Electric Power Project Affected Villages Welfare Association, who had earlier opposed the project, have now veered round to put their seal of approval on it. Association president Chaltonlien Amo and association secretary S.L. Gangte, in a letter to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee recently, said the mammoth project, which has been hanging fire for the past 15 years, should now be expedited as tribals have waived their objections to it. The ire of the tribal organisations along with the resistance by the Manipur government had stymied the implementation of the project. But the uncertainty dogging the project was substantially removed when the Manipur government relented. The Manipur Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution in the House on February 15, 1999, clearing the project.