N. Ramakrishnan

Chennai , May 16

THE proposed hydro power projects along the Cauvery to generate 1,150 MW of electricity are seeing some progress with a meeting between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and the Union Power Ministry scheduled to be held shortly.

A meeting between the two States was held about a month back to revive the projects, which had got stalled because of the dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over sharing the Cauvery waters.

National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Ltd (NHPC), a Government of India undertaking, had proposed these projects in 1998 and held several rounds of discussions with the two States since then. But, there had not been much progress in the last one year because of the inter-State Cauvery river dispute.

Now, according to the Union Power Secretary, Mr R.V. Shahi, the two States have decided to not link the power projects with a solution to the inter-State dispute. An another meeting is scheduled to be held in the next two weeks.

The Cauvery Hydro Power Project, as it is called, envisages having four power projects along the Cauvery to generate a total of 1,150 MW. Two of these projects are in Karnataka - Sivasamudram (270 MW) and Mekadatu (400MW), and two in Tamil Nadu - Hogenakal (120 MW) and Rasimanal (360 MW).

According to reliable sources, the Karnataka Government is expected to brief the Cabinet of the progress and decide on the next course of action.

The NHPC will put up and operate the four plants. Only the Sivasamudram plant is listed on NHPC's Web site, which says it will have two units of 135 MW each. The plant will generate 1,590 million units at 67 per cent load factor and the latest estimated cost is Rs 1,300 crore. The tariff is mentioned as Rs 1.25 a unit and the beneficiary States are Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry.

NHPC's Web site says that "stage II works held up on account of inter-state clearance."

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