Tamil Nadu   

Government may evaluate proposals

By T. Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI, JUNE 24. The six-year-old Cauvery Hydro Power Project (CHPP) seems to be getting a fresh lease of life with the State government weighing its pros and cons.

The CHPP, envisaging two power plants each in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, was mooted by the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) in 1998. As part of the project, the plants will be established at Sivasamudram and Mekadatu in Karnataka and at Hogenekkal and Rasimanal in Tamil Nadu. Once the project reaches the execution stage, the Hogenekkal (120 MW) and Sivasamudram (270 MW) plants will be taken up in the initial phase, sources say. The Mekadatu and Rasimanal plants can generate 400 and 360 MW.

The NHPC will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the four plants, besides establishment. It has to mobilise funds for all of them.

On Monday, the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, held a meeting with senior officials to finalise the State's stand on the proposals sent by the NHPC. The project is expected to figure in the next Cabinet meeting, according to the sources.

Officials of the NHPC say that recently Karnataka approved the proposals. So, it is for Tamil Nadu to act now, they point out. An agreement has to be signed among all parties concerned.

According to them, the main reason for taking up the Hogenekkal and Sivasamudram plants initially is that construction in these two places involves ``practically nil submergence.'' The Union Environment and Forests Ministry gave its clearance two years ago for survey and investigation for the Sivasamudram plant. As per NHPC estimates, the Sivasamudram plant will have two units of 135 MW each at a total cost of Rs. 1,300 crores. The Corporation officials say though provisional figures have been calculated for the Hogenekkal plant too, they can make precise estimates once the approval comes from the State. The other problem relates to flow of Cauvery water into Tamil Nadu.

Once the State governments hand over sites for the Hogenekkal and Sivasamudram plants, the plants will be established in three years, the NHPC hopes. The project can be traced to the initiative of the late P.R. Kumaramangalam, who as Union Power Minister during 1998-2000, evinced an interest in reviving the decade-old Hogenekkal power project. He got Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to give ``in-principle'' approval for the NHPC to execute the CHPP, the NHPC authorities recall.

There was a stalemate with the demise of Kumaramangalam, a change of government in Tamil Nadu and with the Cauvery dispute getting intense.

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