NHPC gets new chairman

Guwahati, Sept. 24: The appointment of K.M. Singh as chairman-cum-managing director at NHPC after five years is expected to streamline activities of the power hydel utility in the Northeast, which till now is facing an uphill task.

Sources said Singh had a stint in the Northeast and had started his career as an executive trainee at Loktak power station in Manipur in 1979. He was also the general manager of projects in Siang basin for three-odd years in the late nineties.

"He knows the region and had worked for almost five years and is a hands-on man," an NHPC official, who had worked with Singh, told The Telegraph.

During his stint in Siang basin, Singh is credited with having commissioned two mini hydel projects.

Singh joined office yesterday as CMD.

The hydel utility did not have a CMD since 2011 and was being headed by officials holding additional charge of other organisations.

The official said Singh is scheduled to visit the Lower Subansiri hydel project at Gerukamukh on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border next month and take stock of the work.

There has been no work on Lower Subansiri hydel project since December 2011 because of agitation by anti-dam activists on downstream concerns.

The project, which was to be commissioned in 2005, is targeting 2019. The corporation is losing huge amount of money because of disruption in work. The current completion cost of the project has been estimated to be Rs15, 894 crore as against Rs 6,285.33 crore when it was sanctioned in 2003.

The other projects of NHPC in Northeast are Dibang (2,800MW) and two projects in Tawang basin of 800MW and 1,000MW and work still has not started.

Prior to his appointment as the NHPC CMD, Singh was the chief executive director of NHDC - a joint venture company of NHPC and government of Madhya Pradesh.

Singh has over 35 years of rich and varied experience to his credit and has been involved in construction, testing and commissioning, operation and maintenance of various projects/ power stations.