Expansion of hydro projects without changes in key design, exempted from cumulative impact assessments
The 2013 memorandum delineated guidelines for streamlining of process of environmental and forest clearance cases by expert appraisal committee and forest advisory committee respectively
The Union environment ministry has exempted expansion of hydroelectric and river valley projects, that do not involve a change in reservoir capacity or key design components, from fresh cumulative impact assessment and carrying capacity studies.
An office memorandum issued by the by the Impact Assessment Division of MoEFCC said that the ministry received representation from the ministry of power regarding exemption from impact assessment studies for expansion proposal of existing projects in a given river basin.
“The matter has been examined in consultation with the expert appraisal committee (EAC), river valley and hydroelectric projects and accordingly it is clarified that expansion proposals of existing HEPs, which do not result in any change in reservoir capacity (Full Reservoir Level — FRL and Dam height), environmental flow and modification in key components like spillway, intake gates, may be carried out after joint appraisal of the EIA/EMP of existing HEPs as well as the EIA/EMP of the proposed expansion project rather than undertaking a fresh CIA/CSS study,” the office memorandum dated January 3 said.
In 2013, the ministry through an office memorandum stipulated that the first project in a river basin could come up without insisting on cumulative impact study, but for all subsequent hydro-power projects in the basin, cumulative impact assessment is a must.
The 2013 memorandum delineated guidelines for streamlining of process of environmental and forest clearance cases by expert appraisal committee and forest advisory committee respectively for hydropower and river valley projects.
On cumulative impact assessment study, it said such a study of a basin would reflect the cumulative impact of commissioned/up-coming hydro-power projects in the basin on environmental flow, biodiversity, muck disposal sites, traffic flow in the region, and Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) issues, among other things.
“While the first project in a basin could come up without insisting on cumulative study. For all subsequent hydro-power projects in the basin. It should be incumbent on the developer of the second/other project(s) to incorporate all possible and potential impact of other project(s) in the basin to get a cumulative impact assessment done. This condition shall be stipulated at the terms of reference stage itself during the environmental clearance process. Once such a cumulative impact study has been done, the same could be shared by EAC with FAC,” it had said.
Further, the guidelines stated that the cumulative impact study in respect of biodiversity component may be separately done by one of the specialized institutes.
The Government of India has been taking several policy initiatives to address the issues impeding Hydro Power development.
In August 2024, the Union Cabinet approved a proposal of the power ministry for providing Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to the state governments of North Eastern Region (NER) towards their equity participation for development through Joint Venture (JV) collaboration between State entities and Central Public Sector Undertakings.
To promote the hydro power sector and to make it more viable, the Cabinet in 2019 approved measures, like declaring large hydro power projects as Renewable Energy sources, Hydro Power Purchase Obligations (HPOs), tariff rationalization measures through escalating tariff, budgetary support for flood moderation in storage HEP and budgetary support for the cost of enabling infrastructure, i.e., construction of roads and bridges.
These developments are significant in view of several hydroelectric projects coming up in high altitude regions of Himalayas and in view of various climate change induced disasters especially Glacial Lake Outburst Floods.
Experts stressed that both fresh environmental assessment and cumulative impact assessment are critical in view of new threats from the climate crisis.
“Take the example of Teesta III project in Sikkim. That project should have been appraised as a new project considering that the earlier environmental clearance came in close to two decades back and the project is now undergoing such huge changes and also there is change in situation in the river basin and also new upstream threats and climate change. Not doing fresh appraisal, fresh EIA, fresh public hearing etc does not make any environmental sense. Secondly, unfortunately, we not seen any credible CIA-CC study that really looks at the cumulative impacts in scientific, comprehensive way,” said Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP).