DONER sets up committee to propose restructuring of subsidy on SHP

New Delhi, Jan 22 (UNI) Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar today announced that his ministry has proposed restructuring of power sector subsidy for the small and medium projects for the North Eastern Region (NER) in view of its difficult terrain and other innumerable problems.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said presently there is only two types of states -- general and special category ones.

''Even among the special category states, there are some other states situated in the middle Himalayan region other than the eight NE States, so it is proper to categorise them all under one group, particularly for the small and medium Hydel Power Projects (SHP),'' he noted.

Noting that in the NER, there are locations where projects could be set up close to the McMohan line, some on the high mountains, upstream and some in the deep forests, Mr Aiyar stressed that to make such projects attractive and viable, they had to offer ''a differential set of subsidies'' otherwise nobody would come forward to invest in them.

''DONER, in consultation with the NE States, has set up a sub-committee on the restructuring of this subsidy factor, which will submit its report within six weeks from the date of its inception of January 17, this year. Once this report is available, than a definite hydel power policy could be framed for the SHPs of the NER,'' he said.

On the basis of various studies, sites for 492 SHPs had been identified in Arunachal Pradesh alone, but only 64 have been implemented and another 48 are under construction, while the fate of the remaining 380 projects is hanging in the air, he noted.

Another significant factor is that though 62 per cent of the villages in the NER are being electrified but only 24 per cent of the rural households have power connections at home -- which is far below than the national average, Mr Aiyar said.

Noting that the present policy, that the SHPs should be maintained by the Centre, is ''practically not viable,'' he said that in fact, the management, maintenance and repair of these should be undertaken at the local levels only, either through the Panchayati Raj Institutions, Village Development Councils and traditional bodies, as the case may be.

The Minister regretted that not much effort is being paid towards tackling the issue of large scale transmission and distribution losses of power in the entire NER, which in some case could go up to as high at 75 per cent. To tackle this problem, special efforts would be chalked out so that the power could be made available at most affordable date with least T&D losses.

He also rued the fact that as per the 10th Five Year Plan, 225 megawatts (MW) of hydel power was to have been added, but actually only 125 MW was installed, while it was almost the fag end of the Plan period.

''Even for encouraging the SHPs and any other projects, one needs a good transportation network for carying heavy duty equipment and this could be carried easily only by the Railways. In view of this, DONER has stressed the need for extending the present Railway network beyond Assam upto Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh,'' he said, adding that extending the railway network upto Arunachal Pradesh will speed up the developmental activities in the region.

The Minister said that a ''massive stepping-up'' of public sector investment in power for the NE States was envisaged in the 11th Plan. But it is imperative that outstanding issues relating to the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri project be sorted out immediately by the Centre, in consultation with the Arunachal Pradesh and Asom governments, he added.

''For the speedy implementation of the projects, particularly of the SHPs, helicopters could be utilised for the transportation of the plant machinery in the Semi-Knocked Down (SKD) and Complete Knocked-Down (CKD) conditions to near the plant site,'' he said.

Mr Aiyar said the entire NER could well be connected by inland waterways and DONER would find out the best possible routes in consultations with the concerned State Governments, before launching the schemes.

These decisions were taken at the first sectoral meeting of the NER on Power, held at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh on January 16 and 17, he said.

Similar types of sectoral meetings would be held at Shillong on February 8 and 9 on Road and Highways, March 21 and 22 on Inland Waterways at Guwahati and April 13 and 14 on Horticulture at Gangtok.

UNI