India moves to develop Tipaimukh dam project

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NEW DELHI, India (website reports): Hydro developers NHPC Ltd. and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd. (SJVN) have established a joint venture with India's Manipur State to develop the 1,500-MW Tipaimukh hydroelectric project on the Barak River in Manipur. Officials of the two government-owned hydro developers and the northeastern India state signed a promoters agreement October 22 for setting up the joint venture. NHPC is to have 69 per cent of the venture, with SJVN having 26 per cent and Manipur 5.0 per cent. Tipaimukh is proposed to be a multi-purpose storage project with the main objective to generate 3.8 billion kWh annually. It also would moderate flooding of downstream areas. Construction is expected to require 87 months. The project has been in the pipeline since 1954. In 2006, India's North Eastern Electric Power Corp. courted bidders for the project, which is to include two diversion tunnels, four spillway tunnels, two headrace tunnels, two surge shafts, two power tunnels, cofferdams, switchyard, powerhouse, and a main rockfill dam to be 163 meters tall and 390 meters long. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delayed the laying of a foundation stone for the project in 2006 due to opposition of local people who said the project threatened thousands of homes and a sacred lake holding the sword of a legendary hero. Tribal groups said the sword of revered hero Jadonang lies in one of five lakes to be inundated. Also to be inundated was an island called Thiledam, meaning life and death, where locals say souls of their people find eternal rest. Meanwhile, the Indian state government of Manipur secretly struck an investment deal with a number of state-run organisations for setting up the controversial hydroelectric power plant and Tipaimukh dam on India's Borak River, reports bdnews24.com. BBC said in a report that the agreement was signed on Oct 22 between the State Government of Manipur and hydro developers Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd and NHPC (formerly known as the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Limited) at New Delhi under major wraps. The proposed project has sparked debates in Bangladesh after India took initiative to build the dam. Experts and rights activists have said Bangladesh would be adversely affected if the dam is built upstream. Even in the State of Manipur, rights groups have been campaigning against the scheme for years and demanded the government scrap the plan. In Bangladesh, various political parties and environmentalists have taken firm stand against the plan, and a parliamentary team briefly went to Manipur in 2009 to have an idea about plant site. But the helicopter carrying the team had failed to land at Tipaimukh due to bad weather. The raging debate and concerns by the citizens' groups and media have led Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh to assure in a joint declaration that India "shall not take any steps, regarding Tipaimukh, that might adversely affect neighbouring Bangladesh, during Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in 2010." BBC quoted Manipur government's irrigation and flood control minister N Biren Singh as saying, "The government's policy is very clear, the Tipaimukh project shall be implemented. It will be funded with aid from the central government, specially the Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER)." Biren also told BBC that the state government is also contacting the Indian prime minister Mahmohan Singh to make him declare the project as 'a national project' of India. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has slated the Awami League-led government for its 'lack of action' regarding the Tipaimukh dam, saying its 'submissive' foreign policy has rendered it 'incapable' of upholding Bangladesh's interests, bdnews24.com adds. "A deal for the construction of the dam has already been signed and they [the government] are not even protesting it. The project will harm the people of Bangladesh if it is implemented," the opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque said on Saturday. "Not only have they been unable to protest against the Indian government going ahead with the dam, they have also failed to get our rightful shares of river waters," Farrouque told a human-chain protest. The project is estimated to generate 3800 million units of electricity per year and is likely to be completed within seven and a half years after the clearance from the Indian government's Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. As hundreds of canals and major rivers, which are lifelines for people in greater Sylhet, are totally dependent on the water flow of Surma, there are apprehensions in Bangladesh that the Tipaimukh project of India could spell doom for a large part of the country. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh authorities are in touch with the Indian government about the signing of a joint investment agreement on construction of Tipaimukh Dam and a hydroelectric project on the Barak river in Indian north-eastern state of Manipur. Dhaka has been strongly opposing the move for construction of the dam on the river that flows down to Bangladesh as it would leave a serious adverse impact on vast areas of the country. The agreement was signed among National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) and India's premier hydropower company, the Manipur state government and another state enterprise SJVN (formerly Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd) to form a joint venture company to implement the project. A press release on the website of the NHPC says that the agreement was signed on October 22 in presence of the Indian central minister of power and Manipur. The project is designed to generate 15000MW of electricity. "We are in touch with the Indian side," a brief press release of the Foreign Ministry said Saturday evening. It said "Indian External Affairs Ministry has referred to the assurances given by India at the highest level in this connection." The release said senior officials at the External Affairs Ministry informed that they would be able to provide further details on the issue once offices open Monday. "We will also remain in close contact with them," the release added.