New rehab package sought for Tehri

With the first phase of the Tehri hydel project starting operation at its full capacity, the Uttarakhand government has asked the Centre to issue a new rehabilitation package of Rs 260 crore.

Chief Minister BC Khanduri met Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in New Delhi yesterday and demanded a fresh package for the rehabilitation of the people who are still residing in the rural areas close to the Tehri dam reservoir.

Khanduri also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Deputy Planning Commissioner Montek Singh Ahluwalia and sought full co-operation from them.

"We have received assurance from the Centre that the funds and aid that were being received during the previous government would continue," said a government official.

Meanwhile, Tehri Hydro Development Corporation, the central agency implementing the Tehri project, has said the synchronisation work of the fourth and last unit of 250 Mw of the dam has been completed. With this, the corporation said the project could now start producing electricity to its full capacity.

The Tehri Hydro Development Corporation is planning to contribute 1,844 Mw capacity addition in hydro electricity during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12) by commissioning Koteshwar (400 Mw), Tehri Pumping Storage Plant (1,000 Mw) and Vishnugad-Pipalkoti (444 Mw).

The other three units of the Tehri project are in operation generate 750 Mw of power.

Overcoming a decades-long rehabilitation problem, the corporation commissioned the first unit (250 Mw) of the project in October, 2005.