5 hydro power projects to come up in AP

North East News Agency

Three leading private companies, including Reliance Energy, will be investing Rs 25,000 crore in Arunachal Pradesh for developing five mega hydro power projects in Siang valley, Chief Minister Gegong Apang said.

The five projects, with a total capacity of 4,800 MW, would be commissioned in seven to eight years, he said. The projects were given to the three companies through “internal biddings”, the Chief Minister said.

Mr. Apang said Jaypee and DS Constructions were among the private companies who signed an MoU with the State Government here on February 22. He claimed this was the first time that the State attracted such a huge investment, that too from the private sector.

Arunachal Pradesh, he said, had been identified as the power house of the country with a total hydro power potential estimated at 50,000 mw. “There are many other hydro projects and proposals to develop them would be considered through global biddings,” he said.

Apart from hydro power, the State was endowed with natural resources like forest, horticulture, medicinal plants and minerals and they would also be explored, the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister said while Reliance would develop two projects with a total capacity of 1700 mw, Jaypee would execute another two with total capacity of 2100 mw. DS Construction will develop one with a capacity of 1000 mw.

On being asked why central government undertakings like NHPC and NEEPCO, who had already conducted survey for some of these projects were not offered the projects, Mr. Apang said they stuck to their norm of giving only 12 per cent free power from the projects to the State Government as royalty but the private companies agreed to give 12 to 19 per cent free power in phases. Mr. Apang said another reason why they opted for private companies was that the Central Government undertakings wanted to develop the projects on ownership basis, whereas the private companies had agreed to develop on lease for 40 years.There were other benefits the private companies were giving like  reservation of jobs for locals.

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