India's Minister alarmed over abysmal hydel capacity addition

India's Power Minsiter Sushil Kumar Shinde called for `all-out` efforts to remove the obstacles that hinder progress of hydroelectric project.

Concerned with the slow pace of development of hydro potential across the nation, Shinde has reiterated the need to accelerate the works on all HEPs. He brought to the forefront the target of 15,627 MW for hydro capacity addition, which was forced to be scaled down to 8,237 MW during the mid-term review, during meeting of the Task Force on Hydro Project Development.

Unfortunately, the hydro capacity commissioned so far is merely 5,260 MW and during the remaining period of the 11th Plan, an additional capacity of merely 1,000 MW is likely to be commissioned. Looking at the figures, a slippage in the total hydro capacity addition has been observed to the tune of 9,468 MW, as opposed to the original capacity addition program.

Highlighting the criticality of decisions to be recommended by the Task Force, which has been termed as the `one-stop shop` to solve all HEP related problems, Shinde calledupon group members to carefully deliberate on the suggestions put forth by the Inter-Ministerial Committee and accordingly advise the way forward.