ITANAGAR, Sept 26 -�Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu along with his Cabinet colleagues today attended a presentation by NITI Aayog in the national capital on the proposed Multipurpose River Valley Project for Siang river.
Giving a brief overview of the project, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant stressed on the need to make the project feasible for the people of Arunachal Pradesh.
The proposed project is estimated to be 300-metre high dam with a capacity of generating 10,000-MW of power. The project will provide relief in downstream river reaches of Arunachal and�Assam, according to an official communique here.
It said, the project is proposed at Siang Stage-II location, which will be built as a single storage project instead of earlier proposed two separate projects Stage-I and Stage-II on Siang river, thereby reducing the cost of around 25% and increasing the storage capacity of the dam.
The State will benefit through its 12% free power share that comes to about Rs 2,400 crore per annum as revenue. Another Rs 200 crore per annum will be added through its 1% free power share, which will be used exclusively for local area development.
Besides, Rs 4500 crore proposed for relief and rehabilitation package, the project will attract an investment of about Rs 80,000 crore with huge employment generation and creation of several economic opportunities.�
Chief Minister Khandu informed that the people in the State carry lots of negative notions regarding large dams and stressed on spreading adequate awareness to dispel the fears.
He suggested the NITI Aayog to visit Arunachal, meet people and to understand the nature of their opposition. He also suggested them to make aware people regarding the technical benefits of dams.
He further pointed out that sometimes opposition to dam is fuelled by narrow vested political interests and people being gullible fall prey to misinformation.
Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein said, �We have had enough meetings on dams and stressed that it was time to work on the ground urging that public awareness is the only mean to take people into confidence�.
Power Minister Tamiyo Taga said the people in Arunachal are emotionally tied to their traditional land and loss of livelihood and land could often spiral into emotive issues.
NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar, who chaired the meeting agreed with the suggestions of the CM and his Cabinet colleagues about on the spot study and to discuss and convince the people about the proposed project.
He agreed to depute a Central team to interact with local people and try to convince them about the benefits of the project.
