Utttarakhand demands share in Nathapa Jhakri power

New Delhi, May 28 (UNI) Uttarakhand today expressed to the Centre its extreme dissatisfaction with the arrangement of sharing of power generated in the state, saying it worked to its disadvantage.

It has also demanded its share in the power generated by the Nathapa Jhakri Hydro-electric project.

Speaking at a conference of chief ministers on the power sector, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj Gen (retd) B C Khanduri said the state had immense potential of hydro power out of which 20,000 MW had so far been identified.

But, he said, the hydro power projects being developed by the Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) as well as the private sector yielded only limited benefits to the States where the projects were located.

For example, he maintained, projects allocated to the CPSUs yield only limited revenue in the form of 12 percent free power to Uttarakhand, which was mainly for distress mitigation.

''The projects should be allowed only on the basis of Tariff Based Bidding, and states should be allowed 12 percent free power up to first 15 years and thereafter 18 percent up to 30 years and 30 percent up to 40 years,'' the chief minister suggested.

He found major defects in the present arrangement of allocating power to agencies other than those owned by the homes state, saying it led to good revenue for others at the cost of the home states, which are inclined to take up more projects but for the resource constraint.

Keeping this in mind, he urged the Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh to help the State in accessing multilateral assistance on 90:10 basis for not only transmission projects but for all projects in the power sector, whether for transmission, distribution, capacity addition.

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