Tuki assures passage of fish in dams in Arunachal

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki today assured to incorporate in the memorandums of understanding (MoUs) and memorandums of agreement (MoAs) provisions of passage for fish at dams of upcoming power projects in the state.
Responding was responding to a query by senior BJP member Japu Deru during question hour in the Assembly regarding such provision at the Bichom Dam of 600 mw Kameng hydroelectric project in West Kameng district.
Answering to the query, Tuki said that no such provision was made in the project, but the executing agency North East Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) had designed the dam for fish hatchery and other tourism related activities.

The chief minister also said that the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the union ministry of environment and forest in its meeting on January 28 this year agreed that provision of hatcheries would be a rational approach in lieu of fish ladder in Bichom dam and the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI) was requested by the NEEPCO to take up the study for finalisation of the design of fish hatcheries in the dam.
He further said the suitability of specific fish pass applicable to the project was being studied by the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) Kochi, which recommended construction of fish ladder of length 797.50 meter for Bichom dam.

"The consultant of NEEPCO opined that the fish ladder in more than 20 meters high dam has failed worldwide to successfully pass fishes to upstream and so the executing agency has kept provision for hatcheries in lieu of fish ladder," Tuki said.
He assured to keep the provision in all future run-of-the-river projects in the state.