During last three weeks or so there has been much deliberations and high-level meetings concerning realization of Arunachal’s hydropower potential. Clearly, just like all such previous talks, this time too there had been discernible ruefulness over the state’s gross under-realisation of its capacity to produce hydropower. A specific example involving a comparison with Himachal Pradesh had also flown in from the DCM at a Delhi meeting, where it was lamented that it’s only approximately 1% of actual realisation of potential when the northern counterpart had already notched an enviable 50 %. There can be little doubt about the factual veracity of this figure and since it’s a tall failure, build-up of which must have a history involving several decades, the regret keeps revisiting time and again. Common people and business community alike are aware of it, and if for the former it’s like a dream never fulfilled up to the current time, for latter it’s somewhat a business proposition that’s apparently worth evaluating, but riddled with a lengthy set of practical problems. The situation now demands a rational approach for turning the tide, and sooner it is undertaken, the easier it will be for the state to pursue its other developmental objectives, as it’s always a basic economic principle that in absence of uninterrupted supply of electricity, it will be silly to expect any real progress.
If state-wise efforts for industrialisation are taken into discussion, a commonality can be noticed which is clamour for cheap power. For any investor in any sector, if the first aspect that is sought is a guarantee for zero power cuts, the second will invariably be a hunt for cheap power. To meet this demand, hydropower has come as an answer to the much contentious hydrocarbon means, and Arunachal, thankfully, has been blessed bountifully by nature. An inherent capacity of producing 50,000 MW through hydropower means has long been chanted and noticeably, this mind-boggling figure had also proved a steady dividend payer for those seeking political fortunes through appropriate milking, since many decades. But when it comes to on-ground facts, it’s all well-known where the state stands and what had been the consequences. A state which is supposed to be flooded with abundance of electricity still has many pockets where it had just reached and many even existing without it. If large projects are unfeasible due to technical, environmental, land acquisition or other bottlenecks, small ones can be tried. And for large ones, all stakeholders must be taken into confidence for solutions.
Much time has been lost and to make good of that, at least to a meaningful extent, the state must take renewed efforts to get rid of its hydropower plights.  

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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