West Shillong legislator Paul Lyngdoh and state power minister Clement Marak in the Assembly on Wednesday. Pictures by UB Photos

Shillong, April 10: Meghalaya today sought to allay fears expressed by neighbouring Bangladesh over the proposed construction of two hydel power projects on rivers located near the international border.

With the power crisis deepening, the state has proposed to construct two dams — the Mawphu hydroelectric project stage-I and stage-II in East Khasi Hills over the Umiew river and the Myntdu-Leshka hydroelectric project stage-II in Jaintia hills region over the Myntdu river.

In January this year, Bangladesh had strongly opposed the proposed construction of the projects as it feared that the construction of the dams could have an adverse impact in areas falling within its territory.

The state government had received a missive from the Union water resources ministry enclosing a letter from a member of the Joint Rivers Commission, Bangladesh, on the Mawphu and Myntdu dams.

It stated that both the dams are on the common rivers between Bangladesh and India and hence construction of the dams may have an adverse impact on various sectors in Bangladesh because of change of flow regime of the Umiew and Myntdu rivers.

Replying to a call attention motion moved by West Shillong legislator Paul Lyngdoh, state power minister Clement Marak said the member of the commission had also requested not to proceed with the construction of the two dams until impact assessment on various sectors in Bangladesh had been jointly conducted. Water-sharing agreements of the two common rivers have been signed between the two countries.

Further, Marak said the Union water resources ministry had also requested the state government to send complete information, including the environmental impact assessment studies and environment management plan (EIA-EMP), if any, along with the status of these projects, and views of the state government on the subject.

The Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd informed the ministry that it had taken up the survey and investigation works of Myntdu dam, stage II, which is located near the Bangladesh border.

“The project is planned as a run-of-river scheme and as such there will be no impoundment of water. The flow regime of those rivers will, therefore, not be affected. At present, environmental impact assessment studies had not been taken up yet for the project,” Marak said while further quoting from what the corporation had written to the ministry.

On the other hand, the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd (Neepco), in a separate letter, informed the ministry that as per the pre-feasibility report it had prepared, the Mawphu project is a run-of-river type development. It has marginal live pondage of 1.12 million cubic metres only and as such the project shall utilise mostly the available discharge in the river.

White paper demand

UDP legislator Paul Lyngdoh today told the Meghalaya government that the Myntdu-Leshka hydel project was a “fit case” for a CBI inquiry while demanding a “white paper” on the project.

During question hour, Lyngdoh pointed out that the total cost of the project had escalated to Rs 965 crore against the original estimated cost of Rs 360.08 crore.

The foundation stone for the project was laid by former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in 2002 while the actual construction of the dam commenced in May 2004.

The three-fold jump in the project expenditure was mainly because of the cost and time overrun.

Lyngdoh stated that as per the Comptroller and Auditor- General’s report, the project has seen a 102 per cent escalation in construction cost, thereby, rendering it unviable.

“This project is a fit case for a CBI inquiry in view of the irregularities pointed out in the CAG report,” the legislator said. He wanted to know whether the irregularities had any adverse impact on the project cost.

Power minister Clement Marak, however, said the project was still viable in spite of cost escalation.

Marak further said that the amount of power generated from the project till date was 220.82 million units while during the lean period the power generation was 10MW.

At the same time, Lyngdoh asked the power minister to come up with a white paper on the entire project.

The first of the three units of the project was formally inaugurated in February 2012 by chief minister Mukul M. Sangma.