GUWAHATI: The All Dimasa Students Union (ADSU), Dima Hasao district, has called for pre-emptive measures from both Assam and Meghalaya governments to ensure that a mishap such as the pipeline burst at NEEPCO’s Kopili hydel project does not recur.
Four officials of Neepco are still trapped in the basement of a two-storey pump house of the 275 MW hydel project at Umrangsu in Dima Hasao district of Assam since Monday morning in the wake of high water pressure in the pipeline blocking rescue operations.
Neepco’s independent director, Vijay Kumar Gupta, had on Saturday reportedly blamed coal mining in Meghalaya for the water of the Kopili river becoming acidic, resulting in damage to materials used in the hydel project that could have triggered the mishap.
“It was time both governments took up preventive measures and also engaged experts to ensure that the river is not polluted from mining activities. In fact, had we not filed an application before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against rat-hole mining in neighbouring Jaintia Hills back in 2014, coal mining in Meghalaya would have continued thereafter and polluted the Kopili river further,” Uttam Langthasa, the president of the ADSU, Dima Hasao district committee, told The Shillong Times from Haflong on Sunday.
Asked about NEEPCO blaming mining in Meghalaya as the cause for wear and tear of the project materials, Langthasa said that while it was a fact that the acidic water led to the corrosion of metals and other materials in the reservoir, the Centre undertaking, for its part, should have done a better job in regard to maintenance and repair of the project commissioned in 1976.
The project has two dams and two reservoirs, one on the Kopili and the other on the Umrong stream (where the blast took place), a tributary of the Kopili.
“Yes, rat-hole mining in Jaintia Hills has polluted the river but we believe that NEEPCO should have undertaken maintenance and repair work much before when the effects of mining since 2009 on the river water quality were detected,” he said.
The NEEPCO official, however, said that the PSU had cautioned the Union Ministry of Power and the chief secretaries of both the states of the possibility of such a disaster because of mining activities.
In July this year, the Supreme Court had given its verdict to allow mining operations on the privately and community owned land under the relevant statutory framework of the Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation (MMDR) Act, 1957.
It, however, warned that mining activity should be in accordance with the law and strictly monitored by the state and central government.
