ES Reporter 

ITANAGAR, Jul 22: Arunachal Pradesh will receive Rs. 10,000 crores in revenue every year from hydropower, said Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein while responding to a query from Congress MLA Kumar Waii in the Assembly Session.
In response to the question, the Deputy Chief Minister informed the house that 169 (one hundred sixty-nine) MoUs/MoAs had been signed with various power developers for the development of power projects in Arunachal Pradesh. Mein also disclosed that 53 MoAs have been terminated till date due to breaches of agreement clauses by the developers, and 15 allotted projects have been dropped as part of the Basin Study.
When Kumar Waii asked whether the government is contemplating initiating action against the defaulting developers who failed to implement the projects assigned to them, Mein, who is also the Power Minister, confirmed that the government is issuing intent-to-terminate notices to the defaulting developers. If an unsatisfactory reply is received, the projects of the defaulting developers will be processed for termination. However, the Deputy Chief Minister confirmed that the government is considering allotting those terminated projects to other power developers.
‘Arunachal Pradesh has the potential for 58,000 MW, which is 40 percent of the total hydropower capacity in India,’ asserted Power Minister Chowna Mein. He further added that most of the hydropower projects signed between 2004 and 2015 has failed, causing huge losses to the state. After Chief Minister Pema Khandu came to power we took the strong decision for all round development of the state; the decision was made to revive 29 projects that had been terminated for various reasons and hand them over to Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) with consultation from the Central Government. In the first phase, permission was sought for these 29 projects, but the central government has only approved 13 projects for which MoUs have been inked, total power capacity of more than 12,000 gigawatts (GW).
Mein further stated that out of these 13 hydropower projects, four are at a progressive stage. If all 13 projects are completed on time, the state will receive 12% free power, 1%  funds for local area development, and a 26% equity share, which will benefit the state by around Rs. 10,000 crore per year. With such huge revenue, Arunachal Pradesh will rank one among the highest per capita income states in the country, asserted Mein during the Assembly session.

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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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