“The Board of Directors of Teesta Urja Limited today
passed a resolution to transfer 29,64,00,000 shares to SPICL,” a Teesta Urja
top official confirmed.
The managing committee of Teesta Board has earlier
approved the proposal to allocate the shares to SPICL and the company informed
Sikkim Power Secretary Mr A K Giri.
“Now that the issue is settled amicably by the SPV
partners and the Government, we expect the work on Teesta-III to be back on
track and the first unit will begin to produce power by June next year,” the
official said.
The work has been stalled a year ago following a dispute
between the Sikkim Government and Teesta Urja over the share allocation issue. The
state government had moved a Sikkim court seeking the share allocation. Teesta
Urja’s argument was the SPV patners were more than willing to allocate the
shares to Sikkim Government, but it was the latter that was dragging its feet
in taking the stake. The dispute has led to the project being delayed by over a
year.
Now, with the Teesta Board approving the share transfer
to SPICL, the long standing dispute has ended. The Sikkim Government, through
Sikkim Power Investment Corporation Limited,
gets 26% share holding in the SPV that is executing the 1200 MW
Teesta-III hydro power project – the largest in the six cascade projects on the
Teesta river run, a person associated with the development said.
Over 75% of work on Teesta-III has already been
completed.
REC and PTC are among the big lenders to the project
while a consortium of six PE players led by Morgan Stanley have pumped in Rs
750 crores signaling the FDI into country’s hydro power projects.
This was considered to be the largest PE transaction in
the country’s power sector. Besides Morgan Stanley, the group of investors
includes Everstone Capital, General Atlantic, Goldman Sachs Investment
Management and Norwest Venture Partners.
The Teesta-III project will not only give power virtually
free to Sikkim but supply electricity to four northern States – Delhi, UP, Haryana
and Rajasthan - which reel under chronic power shortages.
Experts say Sikkim sets the new trend for developing
hydel projects as the country is blessed with bounty of rivers flowing from
Himalayan glaciers during summer when the power consumption is at its peak.
Development of hydro power projects along the Himalayan river course, thus,
could be a win-win situation for the people and the governments.
Leading analyst Mr. Sudip
Bandyopadhyay, MD and CEO of Destimony Securities, said: “With potential
FDI availability, including possible World Bank support, many similar projects
can be successfully established along the Himalayan rivers.”
Mr. Nilesh H Karani, Head of Research at Magnum Equity
Broking, pointed out: “Himalayan glaciers melt in summer and the rivers supply
adequate water for hydel projects in the region. Teesta stands out as good
example of harnessing the hydro power.”
Mr Bandyopadhyay explained that “Hydro-electricity is one
of the leading sources of clean energy.
For an energy starved nation like India which has been blessed with
enough rivers, the potential of generating hydro-electricity in a cost
effective manner is significant.
“At present with only 40% of Hydel power potential being
tapped, India as a country has a huge scope of exponentially increasing hydel
power capacity and reduce pollution through this clean and green power, he
pointed out
Power produced to be transmitted till Kishenganj through
400 KV DC line to be constructed by Teesta valley Power Transmission, a JV
between Teesta Urja Ltd and Power grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL).
PGCIL is to wheel the power to the beneficiary states in the northern region
beyond Kishenganj.
A World Bank report notes that severe power shortage is
one of the greatest obstacles to India’s development.
Over 40 percent of the people -- most living in the rural
areas -- do not have access to electricity and one-third of Indian businesses
cite expensive and unreliable power as one of their main business constraints,
it says.
Poor electricity supply thus stifles economic growth by
increasing the costs of doing business in India, reducing productivity, and
hampering the development of industry and commerce which are the major creators
of employment in the country, it says.
Power sector analysts say hydro power projects are zero
pollutant, as compared to thermal projects which reportedly contribute to half
of global carbon emissions and India relies on thermal power to the extent of
60% of its consumption today. Even the cost of raw material – water – is nil.
Some may even call it Water Gold! Look at this HSBC
Global Research that says increasing hydro power generation capacity would help
in strengthening India's energy security. "Given India's tight domestic
coal supply and increasing reliance on imported coal, hydro capacity provides
the country with greater energy security,” the report says.
The government admits India’s failure to tap hydel power.
In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, the Minister of State for Power
Mr K.C. Venugopal said out of the identified capacity, 33320.8 MW i.e. 22.93%
has so far been developed and another 15130 MW i.e.10.41% of is under
development. He said that about 66.66% of the identified potential is yet to be
developed
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