Tata Power seeks nod for Bhutan projects

Tata Power has sought the approval of the government for setting up hydel projects in Bhutan and selling the power generated from it in India, which faces a huge power crunch amid growing demand.

Tata Power has sought the approval of the government for setting up hydel projects in Bhutan and selling the power generated from it in India, which faces a huge power crunch amid growing demand.

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Under the present policy, only PSUs like NHPC are permitted to set up hydro-power projects in Bhutan and sell the power in India. “Sole dependence on government agencies leads to sluggish development of opportunities...,” Tata Power said in its letter to the government.

Sources in the Planning Commission told HT that the managing director of Tata Power, Anil Sardana recently met BK Chaturvedi, member (energy) Planning Commission, as well as senior power ministry officials in this connection.

Bhutan has large untapped hydro-electric potential, and has been seeking technical and financial support from the Indian government to exploit these resources. Under the current policy, such developmental support is routed through state-owned companies such as NHPC.

Sardana said in a recent letter to Chaturvedi and power secretary, P Umashankar that “Indian PSUs like NHPC carry huge responsibility of development of central sector hydro-electric power projects in the country and expectedly, at any given time, have large number of projects to execute.”

Sardana said Tata Power has already had discussions with the government of Bhutan for power projects, and “the response from the Bhutanese government has been quite positive”.