Narmada valley mini hydel power project to private sector

State to get 15.60 percent power free of cost

Bhopal:Tuesday, September 15, 2009:Updated 18:48IST Focusing on exploiting mini hydel power generation possibilities, the Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA) has come forward with a decision of assigning 15 MW Sitarewa Hydel Power Project to private sector.
Following State Government’s “incentive policy for the development of small hydro projects”, the proposal of Sitarewa Projects was cleared in the 37th meeting of Narmada Control Board held here on Monday.
The meeting was presided over by Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The Sitarewa Project would be commissioned over Sitarewa river, a tributary to Narmada in Chindwara District, using 600 ft. high natural fall of the river.
The remarkable feature of the project is that the state would get 15.60 percent of total power generation free of cost.The rest amount of power will be purchased by the State Govt. It may be mentioned here that NVDA has identified Number of mini hydel power project sites in the valley ranging from 15 to 60 MW capacity. Raghavpur (20 MW), Rosra (35 MW), Basania (60 MW) and Sitarewa (15 MW) are the projects to be taken up on priority basis.
Chairing the meeting of NCB Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that ensuring utilization of Narmada Water allocated to the States by the Narmada tribunal within the time limit is the top most priority to the State Govt. To meet out the 2024 time limit for completing the proposed projects no compromise should be made with prescribed quality and time.
The NCB has also accorded sanction for the survey and related work for medium and minor irrigation projects in the valley. It is to note here that State Govt. has recently constituted medium and mini irrigation council under NVDA to take over the work of medium and mini irrigation projects.
The NCB approval would facilitate to start the survey and preparing Detailed Project Reports covering 1.30 Lakh Hac. area from Handia to Omkareshwar dam. The Vice Chairman of NVDA Shri O.P.Rawat submitted all these proposals along with a proposal of sanctioning revised estimate of Rs. 482.80 Cr. for Punasa Lift Irrigation Scheme of Khandwa District which was also approved by the NCB.
Minister Finance Shri Raghav Ji, Minister PWD Shri Nagendra Singh, Minister Water Resources Shri Jayant Malayia, State Minister Narmada Valley Development and Chairman NVDA Shri K.L. Agrawal, Chief Secretary Shri Rakesh Sahni, Secretary to C.M. Shri Anurag Jain were present in the meeting.