Hydelgate: How corruption, shoddy allocations in Congress-ruled Arunachal Pradesh are drowning India’s hydel-power plans

NEW DELHI/ITANAGAR: At a time India is struggling to meet electricity demand, a plan to tap power from the rivers of Arunachal Pradesh could provide relief. Instead, a massive drive to boost hydel power generation in the state - amounting to 52% of the nationwide hydel addition planned and five times India's current capacity shortage - lies in limbo, a victim of corruption in governments, greed of political parties and excesses of companies.

Between February 2006 and March 2009, the Congress government in Arunachal signed 130 MoUs for hydel projects, amounting to 38,600 mw, on eight rivers. Seven years on, not one has begun construction, and companies are instead looking to exit.

ET kicks off a four-part series that unpacks the hydel crisis of Arunachal, which impacts not just consumers, but also the people in the state and in downstream Assam, flow patterns of the Brahmaputra, and India Inc. It is a cautionary tale of the many forms of subversion that can happen in the allocation of natural resources.

Hydel in Arunachal has four parallels with the controversial coal block allocations of 2006-09. One, Arunachal gave out more hydel projects than it needed to. Two, the state used discretionary powers to allot dam sites, increasing the clout of state politicians, bureaucrats and local brokers to influence allocations. Three, besides sector heavyweights such as Reliance Power, Jindal Power and NHPC, the list of 55 companies featured those in unrelated businesses such as seeds, travel, highways and real estate.

Four, construction has barely begun. The state doesn't have roads or transmission lines. Companies don't have money and even genuine players are looking to exit. And India is the loser for that.