GUWAHATI, June 8 � The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Ltd has said that if the construction work could be resumed immediately, the Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Power Project (LSHEP) could be commissioned by December 2015. Construction work in the LSHEP project site has come to a total halt since December last following agitational programmes of various organisations.
Addressing newspersons here this evening, NHPC Executive Director Rakesh, its General Manager Om Prakash and Chief Engineer (Design) A K Jain said that the Corporation is incurring a loss of between Rs 4 crore and Rs 5 crore per day since December last in connection with the LSHEP.
The loss of the Corporation for the project will be added to the tariff of the power being generated in it (LSHEP), they maintained. The NHPC has requested the State Governments of both Arunachal Pradesh and Assam to provide adequate security to bail it out from the quagmire it is in at present due to the public agitations concerning the LSHEP.
The Chief Ministers of both the States have assured proper steps in this regard, said the NHPC officials.
Further, they said, the local people have also extended their full support to the NHPC for executing the LSHEP. Then why the agitations on the issues of adverse impacts of the project sprang up ? Is it because of the lack of transparency in the approach of the NHPC? Answering such questions, the NHPC officials claimed that their approach was always transparent.
But the agitations have made the NHPC lose a full working session � virtually one year, in executing the LSHEP and this has also resulted in the desertion of over 3,000 of the around 4,000 workers engaged by the contractors at the LSHEP project site.
The project will remain always viable compared to the other ones even if its economics change, they said.
