Bhubaneswar, Sept. 5: Odisha energy minister Arun Kumar Sahoo today expressed the state’s keenness to develop small hydroelectrical project.

“The state has a major hydroelectric potential of about 20,000MW and small hydroelectric potential of 1,000MW, of which only 2,085MW major hydroelectric and 65MW small hydroelectric has been utilised so far,” said Sahoo, adding that the state government had already executed 33 MoUs with private developers to maximise utilisation.

“We have taken a series of pro-active measures to start at least 17 small hydroelectric projects of about 235MW during the present financial year. The remaining 16 small hydroelectric projects of about 198MW will be taken up in 2013-14. All these projects would be commissioned by 2016,” said Sahoo.

The minister added that the pre-feasibility report would be done for another 102 small hydroelectric projects through competitive bidding route so that around 400MW hydroelectricity could be added to Odisha’s grids by 2020.

Sahoo was speaking at a workshop that was organised by Water Power Consultancy Services (Wapcos) Limited in collaboration with Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC).

OERC chairperson S.P. Nanda said the commission reviewed 132 proposals of about 5,000-MW capacity which were pending with engineering-in-chief of the energy department at preliminary feasibility report level.

Secretary of water resources department Suresh Mohapatra said the Odisha government would take up the cases of major players coming to set up hydel projects with seriousness.