News Detail

The country's largest power producer, NTPC, will soon approach new power minister Piyush Goyal for reconsideration of the Centre's decision to scrap its controversial Loharinag Pala hydro-power project in Uttarakhand.

The 600 MW project on the Bhagirathi river was scrapped by a Group of Ministers in 2010 over religious and environmental concerns. NTPC had invested nearly INR 800 crore in the project before it was scrapped. The company's total liability towards the project stands at INR 2,000 crore.

"We expect the new government will re-open the case for revival of Loharinag Pala project where a lot of work has already been done by NTPC and the project has all clearances from the environment ministry and conforms with the Ganga Action Plan,” NTPC chairman and managing director (CMD) Arup Roy Choudhury in an interview. “We will approach the power minister with our request soon,” he added.

While NTPC is not expected to suffer financially by the scrapping of the project as an empowered committee in the power ministry is working out a compensation scheme, the PSU wants to restart it to increase the share of hydropower projects in its basket.

Hydropower projects are time consuming and work on them is completed after going through a tedious process of clearances. As NTPC has finished most of the tunneling work for water flow and power station and has all the green clearances in place, it wants to go ahead with the project. “The project is a fit case for review,” the CMD said.

Source-On Request