India invites German investment in Hydropower

New Delhi, Nov 18 (UNI) India today invited German industries to invest massively in its hydropower plants which are clean modes of producing energy.

Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Indo-German Environment Forum, Union Energy Secretary Anil Razdan said hydropower was the country's preferred route to energy, but for that it needed latest tunnel boring technology.

''German industries should look at India as bulk customer, and offer help on a turn-key project basis,'' he said.

India needs dozens of tunnel boring machines to start new hydropower plants but due to constraints of time and cost it was not able to do so, he said.

One can look at the volumes of the equipment needed which would help in cutting the prices for India while not affecting the economics of German industries, Mr Razdan said.

The Energy Secretary also sought Germany's support in super critical technolgy while stating that India was even looking at ultra super critical plants.

Since India cannot do away with coal as a fuel, it needed cleaner technologies to run its coal-based power plants, he said.

India is already German industries' fourth biggest export market in Asia. Indo-German trade volume totaled EUR 12 billion in 2006-07.

There are currently around 1500 German companies operating in India out of which 700 are Indo-German joint ventures, offering services and projects in Germany.

Germany has quite high benchmarks as an experienced and competent partner in the field of environment with state-of-the-art technological solutions.

These cover areas of environmental planning and legislation, clean technologies, environmental friendly production methods and hazardous waste management and infrastructural development.

The Forum will focus on sanitation, water and waste management, energy efficiency and climate change and CDM.

The two-day forum programme has been organised by the Ministry of Environment and Forest and the Federal Ministry for the Environment of Germany, Nature conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany in coleboration with other ministries and business associations of both the countries.

UNI NAZ SKB KP1549