Himachal cabinet cancels 172 stalled hydro projects

The state cabinet on Wednesday allowed cancellation of the current allocation of 172 projects sanctioned by HIMURJA that failed to pick up even after more than two decades and has decided to re-advertise these projects.

- Shailee Dogra

The decision was taken by the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led cabinet on Day 3 during the 4-day cabinet meetings.

HIMURJA is the state nodal agency for promotion of renewable energy and aims to enhance the proliferation of rooftop solar within the state for projects. All the power projects under 5MW are handled by HIMURJA.

The cabinet also decided to apply a uniform free power royalty of 12% along with an additional 1% for the local area development fund for all hydro projects up to 5 MW that will be allotted in the future.

A senior officer said that the companies who were allotted these works failed to start the work and took extension from time to time.

Along with this the cabinet also gave its approval to cancel 22 hydroelectric projects above 5 MW, previously allotted by the directorate of energy, where implementation agreements have not been signed. For rest of the projects, a time up to 5 August has been allowed for submission of the replies to the notices served.

The state government had issued showcase notices to about 40 such companies.