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bdnews24.com New Delhi correspondent
New Delhi, May 27 (bdnews24.com)India's government-owned NHPC Limited is going ahead with its controversial 1500 MW Tipaimukh Hydro-Electric Project in the country's north-eastern state of Manipur, despite growing concern in Bangladesh about its adverse impact on the country.
S K Garg, chairman and managing director of the NHPC, said the public sector undertaking had recently floated a joint-venture company with the state government of Manipur and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Limited for implementation of the Tipaimukh project.
The NHPC Ltd formerly known as National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Limited will hold 69 percent share in the joint venture, while the Manipur government and SJVN Ltd will have 5 percent and 26 percent stakes respectively.
Garg said the NHPC, SJVN and the Manipur government signed a memorandum of understanding to launch the joint venture on April 28.
The move is almost certain to cause fresh anxiety in Bangladesh, especially after Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh assured her Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina during her visit to New Delhi in January this year that "India would not take any steps on the Tipaimukh Project that would adversely impact Bangladesh".
Garg said New Delhi had conveyed to Dhaka that the project would help mitigate floods in Bangladesh.
"We have conveyed (to Dhaka) that they (Bangladesh) would be better off with the project as it would lessen flood in downstream area," he told journalists during the annual news conference of the NHPC Ltd here.
Mohamed Mijarul Quayes, the Bangladeshi foreign secretary, however, would not provide any information on this project, which has generated a lot of controversy in Bangladesh.
He told bdnews24.com on Thursday: "I can neither confirm, nor negate."
Quayes said he had not received any such communication from New Delhi.
A senior foreign ministry official, who requested anonymity so that he can talk freely on the issue, said the Indian position of no-harm is nothing new. "They always give such assurances."
"It is nothing out of the ordinary really."
Indian officials had reaffirmed that position at the last meeting the Joint Rivers Commission in March this year, he added.
"But we have not received any formal communication from India regarding Tipaimukh."
Indian officials argue that the NHPC's move on the Tipaimukh Project does not go against Singh's assurance to Hasina.
"We believe that this project will not harm Bangladesh. The prime minister promised that India would not do anything that harms the interests of Bangladesh. And we still stick to that," said a senior Indian official, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
India's commerce minister Anand Sharma too recently referred to the Tipaimukh project as one of the major projects in infrastructure sector in the country's underdeveloped north-eastern region that comprises insurgency-hit States like Manipur and Assam.
The Tipaimukh project was conceived as a multipurpose storage dam on the Barak River in Churachandpur district of Manipur, with the main objective of hydropower generation along with flood mitigation in downstream area.
The project is estimated to generate 3800 MW of electricity a year and is likely to be completed within seven and a half years after the clearance from the Indian government's Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
The NHPC chief, however, said that apprehensions over Tipaimukh Project were not based on facts.
"The project would also ensure availability of water during the lean season. The apprehensions expressed are misplaced, as this is not a water retention venture, but a run-of-the-river project, he said.
A section of environmentalists both in Bangladesh and India are opposed to the Tipaimukh Project. They believe that the dam over the Barak would significantly reduce the flow of water in its tributaries-- Surma and Kurshiara in Bangladesh.
As hundreds of canals and major rivers, which are lifelines for people in greater Sylhet, are totally dependent on the water flow in Surma; there are apprehensions in Bangladesh that the Tipaimukh project of India could spell doom for a large part of the country.
The opposition BNP had turned it into a major political issue after the Awami League-led government took office on Jan 6, 2009.
A Bangladesh parliamentary team travelled to India in July 2009 at the invitation of the Indian government to see the site of the Tipaimukh Project. The team on their return told journalists that the dam did not exist and the Indian government had assured them of not doing anything on Tipaimukh Project that would hurt Bangladesh in the downstream.
The Indian prime minister reiterated the same assurance to Hasina during the SAARC summit in Bhutan this year.
New Delhi made the same commitment once again when water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen and his Indian counterpart Pawan Bansal met for the Joint River Commission on March 17-20 this year.
EXCLUSIVEIndia going ahead with Tipai dam | Bangladesh | bdnews24.com
New Delhi, May 27 (bdnews24.com)India's government-owned NHPC Limited is going ahead with its controversial 1500 MW Tipaimukh Hydro-Electric Project in the country's north-eastern state of Manipur, despite growing concern in Bangladesh about its adverse impact on the country.
S K Garg, chairman and managing director of the NHPC, said the public sector undertaking had recently floated a joint-venture company with the state government of Manipur and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Limited for implementation of the Tipaimukh project.
The NHPC Ltd formerly known as National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Limited will hold 69 percent share in the joint venture, while the Manipur government and SJVN Ltd will have 5 percent and 26 percent stakes respectively.
Garg said the NHPC, SJVN and the Manipur government signed a memorandum of understanding to launch the joint venture on April 28.
The move is almost certain to cause fresh anxiety in Bangladesh, especially after Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh assured her Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina during her visit to New Delhi in January this year that "India would not take any steps on the Tipaimukh Project that would adversely impact Bangladesh".
Garg said New Delhi had conveyed to Dhaka that the project would help mitigate floods in Bangladesh.
"We have conveyed (to Dhaka) that they (Bangladesh) would be better off with the project as it would lessen flood in downstream area," he told journalists during the annual news conference of the NHPC Ltd here.
Mohamed Mijarul Quayes, the Bangladeshi foreign secretary, however, would not provide any information on this project, which has generated a lot of controversy in Bangladesh.
He told bdnews24.com on Thursday: "I can neither confirm, nor negate."
Quayes said he had not received any such communication from New Delhi.
A senior foreign ministry official, who requested anonymity so that he can talk freely on the issue, said the Indian position of no-harm is nothing new. "They always give such assurances."
"It is nothing out of the ordinary really."
Indian officials had reaffirmed that position at the last meeting the Joint Rivers Commission in March this year, he added.
"But we have not received any formal communication from India regarding Tipaimukh."
Indian officials argue that the NHPC's move on the Tipaimukh Project does not go against Singh's assurance to Hasina.
"We believe that this project will not harm Bangladesh. The prime minister promised that India would not do anything that harms the interests of Bangladesh. And we still stick to that," said a senior Indian official, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
India's commerce minister Anand Sharma too recently referred to the Tipaimukh project as one of the major projects in infrastructure sector in the country's underdeveloped north-eastern region that comprises insurgency-hit States like Manipur and Assam.
The Tipaimukh project was conceived as a multipurpose storage dam on the Barak River in Churachandpur district of Manipur, with the main objective of hydropower generation along with flood mitigation in downstream area.
The project is estimated to generate 3800 MW of electricity a year and is likely to be completed within seven and a half years after the clearance from the Indian government's Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
The NHPC chief, however, said that apprehensions over Tipaimukh Project were not based on facts.
"The project would also ensure availability of water during the lean season. The apprehensions expressed are misplaced, as this is not a water retention venture, but a run-of-the-river project, he said.
A section of environmentalists both in Bangladesh and India are opposed to the Tipaimukh Project. They believe that the dam over the Barak would significantly reduce the flow of water in its tributaries-- Surma and Kurshiara in Bangladesh.
As hundreds of canals and major rivers, which are lifelines for people in greater Sylhet, are totally dependent on the water flow in Surma; there are apprehensions in Bangladesh that the Tipaimukh project of India could spell doom for a large part of the country.
The opposition BNP had turned it into a major political issue after the Awami League-led government took office on Jan 6, 2009.
A Bangladesh parliamentary team travelled to India in July 2009 at the invitation of the Indian government to see the site of the Tipaimukh Project. The team on their return told journalists that the dam did not exist and the Indian government had assured them of not doing anything on Tipaimukh Project that would hurt Bangladesh in the downstream.
The Indian prime minister reiterated the same assurance to Hasina during the SAARC summit in Bhutan this year.
New Delhi made the same commitment once again when water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen and his Indian counterpart Pawan Bansal met for the Joint River Commission on March 17-20 this year.
EXCLUSIVEIndia going ahead with Tipai dam | Bangladesh | bdnews24.com
