The Hindu Business Line : Chamling lays stone for hydro electric power project

Gangtok, April 30 The Sikkim Chief Minister, Mr Pawan Chamling, last week laid the foundation stone of the 120 MW Rungeet Stage-IV Hydro Electric Power Project comprising three 40-MW Units at Reshi in West Sikkim. The project, a run of the river scheme, is scheduled to be completed in about 52 months.

As part of a national drive for the development of the country’s hydro potential, the State Government awarded Rungeet Stage-IV Hydro Electric Project to Jal Power Corporation Ltd (JPCL) on November 1, 2004.

"This project will provide locals facilities of contractual work, among other things," Mr Chamling said at the ceremony. The Chief Minister said that Sikkim would become the “richest State in the country” within 2015.

An agreement for setting up the Rungeet Stage-IV Project was signed with the State Government on December 9, 2005 on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis trough the Sikkim Power Development Corporation.

Speaking at the function, the Minister of the State for Sports and Youth Affairs, Mr P.S. Goley, said the Government had passed a notification stating that every private company in Sikkim would have to recruit local youth to the extent of 95 per cent of total employment in the region. He also welcomed big companies to invest in the State.

Rungeet Stage-IV was identified as a part of a master plan evolved in 1974 for the development of hydro power potential of the Teesta and Rungeet rivers of Sikkim. Detailed field investigations were taken up on the project by the Central Water Commission in 2003, a detailed project report being brought out in August, 2006. The project was accorded techno-economic clearance by the Central Electricity Authority on June 14, 2007 and environment clearance by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on May 16, 2007.

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