Seven projects confronted a cumulative price overrun of Rs 31,884 crore as of March 2023, in keeping with a Business Standard evaluation of information from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation month-to-month experiences.
This contains the Subansiri Lower challenge in Arunachal Pradesh (Rs 14,962.2 crore price overrun), Himachal Pradesh’s Parbati challenge (Rs 7,215 crore) and Tapovan-Vishnugad (Rs 4,124.5 crore) in Uttarakhand. The information lined projects of Rs 150 crore or extra.
The authorities has lately sought to ease the way in which for elevated use of hydroelectric energy, with a decrease burden of environmental clearances for sure sorts of crops. Pumped storage hydropower projects contain a pair of water reservoirs used to generate electrical energy, positioned at completely different altitudes, with a turbine connecting to provide electrical energy, as water flows from one reservoir to the subsequent. In May, the surroundings ministry exempted such projects from the environmental impression evaluation regime as they’ve a decrease environmental impression, ‘compared to classical hydro projects as well as irrigation and water supply projects,’ in keeping with the ministry notification on the change in guidelines.
Other price overrun projects such because the Tehri Pumped Storage Plant (Rs 3,168.6 crore) are anticipated to play a task in improved system reliability by supporting the grid throughout off-peak hours. The Vishnugad Pipalkoti challenge (Rs 1,368.8 crore) in Uttarakhand carried out by the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation seeks to extend electrical energy provide by renewable sources.
Some of the elevated costs are to do with delayed implementation. The common delayed hydropower challenge in India is over six years late.
At least a dozen hydroelectric projects are going through delays starting from a number of months to fifteen years; although not all have but reported price overruns.
The Parbati challenge in Himachal Pradesh has confronted a 174-month delay. Others going through a delay embody Subansiri Lower (165 months), Vishnugad Pipalkoti (144 months) and Tapovan-Vishnugad (141 months). The common for the dozen projects recognized within the evaluation is 79 months or 6.5 years (chart 2).
A couple of causes for time overruns have been attributed to disputes with native villagers and delay in finalising agreements.
While the evaluation checked out hydropower projects, information additionally confirmed that as of March 2023, 54 out of 78 energy projects total are delayed.
