The Hindu : Kerala News : `Hydel project will submerge 4.10 hectares of forests'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 06, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

`Hydel project will submerge 4.10 hectares of forests'

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 5 . A total of 4.10 hectares of forests will be submerged when the Pathrakadavu hydel project is implemented, the Electricity Minister, Kadavoor Sivadasan, informed the Assembly today.

In response to questions, he said that out of the forest land submerged, 1.2 hectares would comprise rivers and river banks. As much as 4.72 hectares of private land was needed for constructing the power house of the project. The project, with an installed capacity of 70 MW, will be a run-of-the-river scheme on the Kunthippuzha, a tributary of the Bharathappuzha. It could be completed in four years and would yield 214 million units, he said.

He said sanction was yet to be obtained from the Union Ministry of Forest & Environment. If this was received, the work on the project could be started in 2006. The Environment Resource Research Centre in the State capital had been told to undertake a study of the project.

In written replies, the Minister said a total of 22.12 lakh electronic meters had been installed all over the State so far. There is no increase in consumption after the installation of the meters. There were as many as 29,081 power breakdowns during April and May. A total of 4.39 lakh applications for power connections were pending as on December 31, 2003. Of this, 2.26 lakhs need line extensions while 2.13 lakh connections could be extended from the existing lines.

The Minister said that it was proposed to complete 14 hydel projects and expand four others by 2007 under the Tenth Plan. Apart from this, 61 small-scale hydel projects of a total of 161 MW capacity were proposed to be set up with private participation, he said.

`Funds for flood roads going to waste'

The funds allotted to MLAs for the construction of flood roads were not being utilised properly and the money could be put to better use for other relief work, the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, told the Assembly.

Replying to questions from Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, K.N.A. Khader, E.T. Mohammed Basheer, C. Moyinkutty, Isahaque Kurikkal, A.C. Shanmughadas, Prayar Gopalakrishnan, P.K. Sreemathy and others, he said most of the flood roads lasted only for a short period. The MLAs should decide among themselves how to check the wastage of funds for flood roads.

The Government would take steps to involve people's representatives in flood relief operations at the district level, Mr. Antony said. The delay in the disbursement of flood relief would be reduced. The State had not received any special assistance so far from the Centre towards drought or flood relief.

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