Meeting of North Eastern Regional Power Committee in Guwahati

The North Eastern Regional Power Committee (NERPC), Ministry of Power, Government of India held its 22nd meeting in Guwahati on March 28.

The meeting, held under the aegis of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) was attended by the power ministers of Northeast states along with the management of various central and state power utilities.

Chief minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio, chaired the meeting. Chief minister Rio said that the forum of NERPC is best suited for deliberation and fruitful resolution of inter-regional power sector issues.

He urged the member states of Northeast region to utilize the revamped distribution sector scheme of central government to strengthen the distribution network and capacity building of discoms and power departments.

The matters such as North East Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSIP) of Government of India, expansion of transmission networks, expansion of reliable communication, development of hydro plants etc., were discussed in the meeting.

Stating that NER is blessed with huge hydro potential and which needs to be harnessed, B Lyngkhoi, convener and member secretary of NERPC apprised the forum that high scale upgradation in the transmission networks is necessary for evacuation of hydro power from the region.

The technical issues were initially taken up in the technical coordination committee meeting of Northeast region on March 26 held under the chairmanship of Penrithung Yanthan, chief engineer, Department of Power, Nagaland.

The recommendations of TCC have been referred to NERPC forum for the final ratification/approval.

In his speech, Arunachal Pradesh deputy chief minister Chowna Mein congratulated NEEPCO for successful commissioning of 600 MW Kameng Hydro Electric Project by putting the last and final unit into commercial operation on February 12, 2021.  He also requested NEEPCO to carry on the same tempo to take up all the new projects in Arunachal Pradesh entrusted to them — 120 MW Nafra HEP, 90 MW New Malling HEP in Tawang and 330 MW Kuru HEP.

He said that the construction of 2000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydro Electric Project resumed in October 2019 by National Hydro Power Corporation and informed that two of its unit with a capacity of 500 MW would become operational by August 2022 and also impress upon them to work hard further to ensure completion of the entire project in August 2023 as scheduled.

Deputy chief minister of Meghalaya, Prestone Tynsong; deputy chief minister of Tripura, Jishnu Dev Varma and CMD NEEPCO VK Singh were also present in the programme.

Subscribe to our Newsletter


Avatar photo
About Jassika Poudyel

-

Jassika Poudyel is a Guwahati-based journalist.