Industry body Assocham on Monday said the Centre should set up a separate cell for overseeing rehabilitation of hydel projects which have suffered huge losses due to the recent calamity in Uttarakhand.
"The Central government needs to set up a separate cell in partnership with the state government for overseeing the rehabilitation of affected hydro power projects in the state. "This will ensure that there is no delinquency by any government department in providing relief and concessions," the chamber president Rana Kapoor said, giving a 10-point strategy for turnaround of hydro power sector in the state.
The devastating natural disaster in Uttarakhand has severely shaken the confidence of investors in 199 ongoing hydropower projects in the state with an estimated potential of 14.4 GW and existing 45 projects have suffered huge losses, he said.
"In Uttarakhand, small hydro power (SHP) stations are more vulnerable to natural calamities as their power channels are more prone to landslides/cloud bursts etc," said Kapoor.
The estimated capital cost of setting up a small hydro electricity plant ranges between Rs 5.5 crore and Rs 7.7 crore per one megawatt and the per unit (Rs/kwh) cost of hydro power generation was estimated ranging from Rs 3.54 to Rs 5.96. It has also been perceived that the share of hydro electricity would fall from 14 per cent in 2012 to 11 per cent by 2030, Kapoor was quoted as saying in the chamber report.
As for the exploitation of the potential of this cheap source of energy, the country s 149 GW estimated potential, capacities created so far account for only 32 per cent of it. A major part of the unexploited potential exists in the Himalayan region and North-East. Therefore, it is imperative for the country to create capacities to harness hydro electricity potential in the Himalayan region that includes Uttarakhand, he added.
However, Kapoor said this requires the use of latest technologies that cause minimum damage to the ecology. Hydel projects require regular renovation and modernisation for optimal capacity utilisation that involves using modern equipment like static excitation, microprocessors, data logger, and optical instruments.
Owing to the cloud burst and unprecedented high floods in Uttarakhand, various ancillary structures of the projects like roads, residential and non-residential buildings got damaged. Most of the damaged plants can only commence power generation by March 2014.
In the private sector, major hydel projects being built by GVK, L~~amp;amp;T, JP Group, Lanco etc have suffered damages, he said. As a first step towards formulating appropriate rehabilitation strategy, affected hydro power units need to be segregated into groups on the extent of damage suffered and the support required for rehabilitation.
The revival package must be a phased one and the single window concept should be introduced for implementing the revival package, he said.
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