SHILLONG, March 10: More than 66 per cent work of the much-awaited Ganol Small Hydro Power Project has been completed so far and the state government is targeting to commission it by May next year.
This was informed by Power Minister, James PK Sangma, while replying to a question raised by Rangsakona Congress MLA, Zenith Sangma, during the Question Hour of the Assembly on Wednesday.
James informed that the cost of the project was revised to whopping Rs 507.71 crore, out of which Rs 223.4 crore is loan amount, Rs 54.62 crore is equity and Rs 229.98 crore is grant.
The power minister also informed that the government had given a grant to the MeECL for the completion of the project.
According to James, the total estimated cost of the project in 2007 was Rs 155 crore, which was again revised to Rs 356.43 crore in 2014 due to the increase of land as per the new Land Acquisition Act.
“The project cost was revised to Rs 507.71 crore in 2019 due to the increase in quantity of several components and some geological surprise at the project site,” James said. He also informed that around 66.60 per cent of the work on the project has been completed and about 34 percent of the work remains pending.
Earlier, Zenith had questioned as to how can there be a geological reason after over 66 per cent of work has already been completed.
Reacting to this, the power minister said that the geological surprise came in the form of soil stability and construction of the surface penstock had to be made into underground penstock.