Centre divided on six U'khand hydro projects

Absence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was cited by Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi as the principal reason to firm up the government’s stand on the future of six Uttrakhand hydro power projects, whose fate are under cloud since the devastating deluge hit the hill state in 2013.

A week back, the top law officer of the government sought two weeks of additional time from the Supreme Court to finalise a comprehensive affidavit on the part of the Centre citing reasons like “inter-ministerial conflict” and the “highest authority being out of the country”.
Rohtagi's comments come in the wake of submission of two more expert reports commissioned by the Ministry of Environment and Forest and the Ministry of Water Resources.

The controversial projects are Lata-Tapoban (171 MW by National Thermal Power Corporation); Kotlibhel-IA (196 MW by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation); Jhellum Tamak (108 MW by Tehri Hydro Development Corporation); Alakananda (300 MW by GMR); Khirao Ganga (4 MW by Super Hydroelectric Power) and Bhyunder Ganga (24 MW by the Super Hydro Power).

The future of the six projects – some of which received environmental clearance in 2007 – are locked in a legal battle following a Supreme Court judgement in August 2013 in which the apex court took suo motu cognisance of mushrooming of hydro-power projects in ecologically sensitive Uttarakhand.