Hydro Power Potential Of North East India And It's Development

It is crystal clear that North East India has a huge potential of hydro power resources in the country. But a negligible amount of hydro power has been harnessed by different power generating agencies and government so far. Until and unless we tap these unexploited water resources, it will be a huge amount of economic loss for the region. Following suggestions are presented to exploit the unexploited hydro power resources of the region:

- Dr.A. Rajmani Singh

Private power companies’ participation with respective states for joint development of hydro power generation must be encouraged in North Eastern Region. It will make possible to harness the unexploited hydro power potential of the region at maximum extent directly and boost up the socioeconomic condition of this backward region indirectly.

Reorganisation and strengthening more on the existing hydro power generating public sector enterprises of the region such as NEEPCO, NHPC and WAPCOS is highly needed. Their age old work culture and technology should be changed with highly sophisticated technology.

North Eastern state governments should take part in equity participation in the public sector power companies in lieu of their share of free power. This will put more concern on the development of already exploited and unexploited power resources of the region.

Investment by other power deficit states to the power potential states or forming a joint venture to tap the unexploited resources is highly needed. In addition Foreign Direct Investment on Hydro Power sector must be encouraged by the government with special provision to North east India.

A congenial atmosphere, cooperation from the people, NGOs, funding agencies and environmental clearance agencies are other important areas to be considered before construction of any major hydro power site. This will minimise the conflict between government and people, cost escalation and time overrun for completion of project.

Power lost in transmission and distribution should be checked with an effective and efficient system. This will not only save the power loss in transmission and distribution, but also increase the revenue collection through power of the region. When the distance between demand area and supply area is minimized, only then transmission loss can be less.