THE Central Government is laying much stress on the development of power sector in the NE Region. For the region, the Central Government has planned 67 power projects in recognition of the region’s hydel potential of 50,560 MW, says Union Minister of State for Power Jayawanti Mehta.

She is however, unhappy over the slow pace of reforms in Assam under the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP).  She appealed to the Gogoi government to accelerate the pace of reforms in the power sector. Jayawanti Mehta said Centre had been planning to invest an amount of Rs 25, 000 crore for the development of the hydel power sector during the next five years. By the end of 2007 the country will be generating an additional 41, 000MW of power on the top of the 1,60, 000MW of power it is now generating.

Chairman-cum Managing Director (CMD) of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) S C Sarma made a presentation to the Union Minister on the performance of his organisation. He said that the NEEPCO had achieved about 3, 000 Million Units (MU) in 2002-03 and its target for 2003-04 had been fixed at 4,135MU. It is expected to achieve this target in the current year, he said. The NEEPCO has a total installed capacity of 1105MW from its five power stations.

The tariff of these power stations is varying from 70 paise per unit for the Kopili HE Project to 225 paise per unit for the Assam Gas-based Power Project. The average tariff of the NEEPCO power is 153 paise per unit, which is very competitive, compared to the all India average, CMD  said. The NEEPCO is going ahead with five new projects—the 60MW Turial HE Project, the 25MW Kopili HE Project Stage-II, the 600MW Kameng HE Project the 1500MW Tipaimukh HE Project in Manipur and the 180MW Tripura Gas-based Power Project,  Sarma added.

While the preliminary works for all the projects have already been started, the works of the Turial HE Project and the Kameng HE Project are in full swing and early clearance of the Kameng, Tipaimukh and Tripura GBPP projects are also expected, he said adding that the Tripura Project is awaiting cheaper funding from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). Decision on the matter is expected by October next, he said. Moreover, he said, the Central Government had entrusted the NEEPCO for preparation of pre-feasibility report of 18 hydro projects with a total 4915MW of installed capacity, out of the 50, 000MW of the Prime Minister’s initiative, in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. Five more projects, Sarma said, had also been taken up by the NEEPCO  for survey. These are –Ranganadi Stage-II HE Project, Lower Kopili HE Project, Dikrong HE Project, Papumpam HE Project and Hirik HE Project, with a total installed capacity of 490MW, he said. He denied the allegation of the NEEPCO charging a iscriminatorily higher tariff from the NE States.

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