The Uttarakhand glacier burst has caused an estimated loss of Rs 1,500 crore at the NTPC’s 480 MW Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project and has put a question mark on its scheduled commissioning in 2023, Union Power Minister R K Singh said. He visited Tapovan on Monday to assess the extent of damage at the project site, a day after the glacier burst in Chamoli district. “The project was scheduled to be commissioned in 2023. But there is a question mark now on how long it will take to desilt it as lakhs of tonnes of silt is lying at the project site. As of now it is difficult to say when we will be able to resume work at the site and when the project will be commissioned,” Singh told reporters in Tapovan.
NTPC will be installing early warning systems in its projects located in hill states prone to natural disasters, said R K Singh. He also announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the families of deceased NTPC workers in the avalanche. Singh who was talking to reporters at the Jollygrant airport here on his way back to Delhi said the snow slide which brought a deluge in the Rishi Ganga river on Sunday was huge but the barrage built at the NTPC project bore the brunt of it and helped save villages downstream from massive devastation.
“The private hydel project in Rishi Ganga was totally washed away while the NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project also suffered major damage but owing to the solid structure of its barrage, the torrents of muddy water and silt could not cause much damage to villages located downstream,” Singh said.
Drawing lessons from the calamity it has been decided to install early warning systems in NTPC projects in all hill states which are vulnerable to natural disasters like avalanches. A team of NTPC, THDC and SJVNL officials will visit the project site to ascertain the causes behind the damage done on the basis of ISRO images. People of the flood-hit villages will be given a chance to work in NTPC projects if they want.
