By IANS
Shimla : The Himachal Pradesh cabinet at its first meeting Wednesday revised the policy on allotment of hydel projects to attract more investments.
“Now hydel projects from 5 MW to 100 MW will be allotted to those parties which offer more upfront money. This upfront money will add to the resources of the state,” said Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.
“The earlier policy left room for manipulation as these projects were allotted through the MOU (memorandum of understanding) procedure,” he said.
“This new procedure will apply to all projects in this category, including those which have already been advertised and are in the process of being allotted,” Dhumal.
With some of the biggest rivers in the Western Himalayan region flowing through the state, Himachal Pradesh has a quarter of the country’s hydropower potential. However, only around 25 percent of that potential has been tapped so far.
Speaking about the shortage of power in the state, the chief minister said he had appealed to his counterparts from Gujarat and Chhattisgarh to spare some power to Himachal Pradesh.
For the past few days the hill state is battling a shortage of power from the northern grid leading to a crisis in the peak of winter. The state is facing a daily shortage of 4.5 million units.
Himachal Pradesh is a power-surplus state but is dependent on the northern grid to meet its energy needs.