To provide electrification for remote villages which face challenges due to poor connectivity and mountainous terrain, the Arunachal Pradesh Government is planning to build 50 mini, micro and small hydropower projects (10-100KW) under the Golden Jubilee Border Village Programme for Rs 200 crores.
The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Pema Khandu said- “the fifty projects are being implemented in a phased manner and under Phase-1, 17 projects with an installed capacity of 1255 KW at an estimated cost of Rs 50 crores.
Apart from the villagers, these projects will be highly beneficial to the armed forces deployed in this sector. Currently, the forces are dependent on diesel generators which is costly. They will receive energy at a lower price as compared to diesel generators.
The Chief Minister explained that the “Ample presence of water resources such as rivers, lakes and natural springs along with ‘heavy rainfall’ in this region will serve as a great advantage in the extraction of energy from micro-hydel projects.”
These are stand-alone projects and include localised transmission and distribution components to facilitate essential services to the forces and people in one go.
The Deputy CM of Arunachal Pradesh and in charge of the Power Department of Arunachal Pradesh, Chowna Mein said that 17 projects located in 11 districts will cover 123 border villages benefitting 10,185 people.
He also said that such projects are not only cost-effective but environmentally sustainable.
“Arunachal to date installed many such projects during the last few years. The state earned more than four lakhs of carbon credit by generating power through this micro-hydel, “the Deputy CM said.
In addition, defence entities such as Indian Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) covering 18,000 personnel, will be electrified in 17 projects.
On April 10, 2023, Union Home Minister Amit Shah during a visit to Anjaw District inaugurated nine projects which have a total capacity of 725KW. One of these projects called Dichu Nallah is located very close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) near Kibithoo in Anjaw District.
Due to its proximity to the LAC, the project faced problems from scrutiny by the Peoples’s Liberation Army (PLA).
As per Dharmendra Gogoi, the executive engineer of the project – “However, despite many hurdles we could complete the project within a very short period. We have also changed the colour of the project from bottle green to red.”
Most of the Army utilities in the area are painted green and the red colour denotes civilian assets. The northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh has the longest international border in the country with a total length of 1,863 km. Out of the total international boundary, the state shares an 1126 km border with Tibet (Tibet Autonomous Region).
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