By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The much-awaited additional transmission line from Agia to Nongalbibra has hit a major stumbling block due to opposition from a land owner in Assam.
The 92.15-km additional transmission line is meant to provide backup power to Garo Hills in case of a breakdown in the main Shillong-Nongalbibra transmission line.
State Power Minister AT Mondal on Tuesday informed that three spans of the towers falls in the land of an Assam resident who has moved a local Goalpara court over the issue.
“The land owner wanted Rs 75 lakh as compensation since the towers were to be set up on a rubber plantation belonging to him. We changed the location but three spans still falls under his land,” Mondal said, while stating that the Meghalaya Government was willing to pay land compensation as per the recommendations of the Revenue department of the Assam Government.
Altogether 106 towers out of 316 towers for the additional transmission line have been installed in Assam. The estimated budget of the additional transmission line, which was approved in 2007, is Rs 43.32 crore.
According to Mondal, power shortage is a problem not only in Garo Hills but all over the region and the country while adding that the decrease in the water level in the Umiam reservoir has also added to the problems in the capital city.
The State currently requires 561 MW of power to cater to the increasing demand and spends around Rs 387 crore annually for purchasing power from different sources to meet the shortfall in supply.
The State Government is now awaiting commissioning of the third phase of the Myntdu -Leshka power project to optimise power generation in the State, Mondal added.
The Power Minister also claimed that the power scenario in the State would improve by next year as the work for the Ganol Power project would start by October. Four parties have applied in the bidding process, he informed.
He also informed that the State will get about 79.5 MW of power from the Palatana gas based project in Tripura which is expected to get commissioned in July next year. The State is also expected to get some share of power from the Bongaigaon thermal power plant in Assam.
It may be mentioned that the Garo Hills based A’chik Youth Welfare Organization has been agitating over the dismal power scenario in Garo Hills. The organization has also announced a mass rally and a signature campaign to protest against the Government’s failure to address the power crisis in Garo Hills.
