Hurdles for hydropower plant in Arunachal Pradesh's Dibang river cleared, work to begin soon

The work on the country's biggest hydro-electric project proposed in the Dibang river in Arunachal Pradesh would commence soon amid concerns over possible downstream impact in neighbouring Assam.

Officials in Arunachal Pradesh said that the hurdles over land acquisition for the 2,080-MW Dibang multi-purpose project have been cleared recently and the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), the public sector company, is now gearing up to commence the construction work.

The work on the project, which would require nearly Rs 33,000 crore, could not be started mainly due to land acquisition issues. The project is proposed on the Dibang river in Lower Dibang valley district. The dam site is located about 1.5km upstream of the confluence of Ashu Pani and Dibang rivers and about 43km from the district headquarters, Roing.

Stating that Arunachal Pradesh possesses 40 per cent of the country's hydro power potential, Chief Minister Pema Khandu on August 15 said that concerted efforts are being made to convert the potential into generation and supply.

"During the Covid-19 pandemic, we commissioned the 24 MW Dikshi hydro project and the 600 MW Kameng project. Due to active intervention of the central government the work on the 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower project is progressing rapidly," he said.

Work on the 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower hydro-electric project, a run of the river project being constructed on the Subansiri river, had started in 2006. But the work remained stalled between 2011 and 2019, mainly due to strong agitation and blockade by organisations in Assam, who feared possible adverse impact in the downstream areas, during the Monsoon.

The agitations led to cost escalation and NHPC had to revise the time for commissioning several times. The NHPC officials recently stated that one unit of the project is likely to be commissioned in September this year.

The PSU installed a cloud-based software for early warning systems in 12 hydro-electric projects in the country including the Subansiri Lower project. The software seeks to prevent a disaster, particularly during floods. The software was installed as per recommendations of the Central Electricity Authority, which had set up a committee after the Uttarakhand disaster, to suggest safety measures for 24 vulnerable hydro-electric projects in the country.

Organisations in Assam are likely to launch agitation against both Subansiri Lower and the Dibang project.