NGT admits case on Lower Subansiri project

Guwahati: National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday admitted a case pertaining to the ecological issues related to the downstream of the Lower Subansiri Hydro Electric Project dam by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Limited. Filed by NGO Assam Public Works and admitted by Justice Swatantar Kumar, who issued notices to NHPC, Ministry of Environment and Forest(MoEF), Power Ministry and governments of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, NHPC has to submit reply to the tribunal by January 29 next.
The petitioner said while NHPC had initially planned to release only six cusecs from the dam for 20 hours or so when the project will be “off-grid”, eight years after starting the project in 2005, NHPC announced that they will release 220- 250 cusecs by keeping one turbine running which is not based on any rational basis.
The petitioner has prayed for a suitable opening through the dam at a suitable level through which ‘sustenance water’ of 450 cusec, which is the average minimum of the lean water flow over a period, for survival of the Indian Gangetic Dolphins and other aquatic animals.
The petitioner also prayed for technologically sound embankments up to the confluence with Brahmaputra so that flushed sediments from the reservoir do not destroy the agricultural fields of the villages as has happened in NEEPCO’s Ranganadi project. (PTI)