First phase of the country's largest hydropower plant will start in March 2025, 17 states will get electricity

After a long wait of about 25 years, the country's largest hydro power Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project is going to start in March 2025. Three units of 250-250 MW of the project will start in the first phase.

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 07:58 PM (IST)
First phase of the country's largest hydropower plant will start in March 2025, 17 states will get electricity
First phase of the country's largest hydropower plant will start in March 2025, 17 states will get electricity

After a long wait of about 25 years, the country's largest hydro power Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project is going to start in March 2025. Three units of 250-250 MW of the project will start in the first phase. This will allocate electricity to 17 states including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and North East. The project's executive director chief Rajendra Prasad claimed that all the obstacles in this project so far have been removed. It is worth noting that the NGT had pointed out many obstacles in the implementation of this project. Due to which this project has been in crisis since the year 2011. But after all the obstacles were removed after 2019, work is going on at a fast pace these days on the dam built on the Subansiri River on the border of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. About 90 percent of the work of the power plant has been completed.

It is a by-drop power project with an installed capacity of 2000 MW. The capacity of each unit is 250 MW. The project will install 8 units wherein a total of 2000 MW of electricity will be allotted. This includes dispatch of 533 MW to Assam, 274 to Arunachal Pradesh, 198 to other north-eastern states Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Mizoram. 387 to northern states namely Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh and 613 MW to western states namely Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Goa. Most unique feature is that this project includes the 8-lane pressure shafts.

Although most of the states of India have their importance in one way or another, so far as natural, historical, and tourism aspects are concerned. But Arunachal Pradesh is one such state in the northeastern direction whose natural beauty simply woos you the moment one steps into this place. As soon as we reached the Donyi Polo Airport, which came into existence only two years ago, it became clear that this beautiful state had to lag behind other states in the pace of development after independence.

When we boarded a taxi from the airport, we felt that there was soil instead of stones on the side of the mountains. Taxi driver Kailash Das, resident of Guwahati, has said in a conversation that these can be called dead mountains. Which have now taken the form of soil instead of stone. On being asked about its meaning, he said that it is called in colloquial language. These look like stones. Arunachal Pradesh is a state with 25 districts and is connected to the international border of three countries, China, Burma, and Myanmar.

It is this state that, after so many years of independence, was able to connect with the country's air service network only in 2022, two years ago. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Donyi Poli Airport here. He had also laid its foundation stone in the year 2019. Right now, the airport is small, but the work for its expansion is going on. It is mainly connected to Kolkata and Delhi at present.

Muskan Kumawat Journalist & Content Writer