A House Committee of the Orissa assembly has recommended cancellation of MoUs of private power companies which have failed to set up small hydro electrical projects (SHEP) in the state in time.
The Standing Committee on Energy headed by Bijayashree Routray tabled its report in the state assembly on Tuesday. ?The MoUs with the parties may be cancelled — those who do not go for power production (from their mini hydro power project) inspite of all the facilities availed from the government,” the report said.
The state government had signed MoUs with as many as 32 private power companies for development of small/mini/micro hydro electric projects of a total capacity of 427 MW over the last decade. However, only two projects, Middle Kolab (25 MW) and Lower Kolab (12 MW), have been commissioned. The Samal barrage project in Angul district with an installed capacity of 20MW is expected to be commissioned within a couple of months.
Meanwhile, the state government has received about 100 applications from private power developers for setting up small/mini/micro hydro electric plants in the state.
The government is not able to dispose of these applications in the absence of an exclusive hydro electric design cell in the department to deal with SHEP applications, said an official of the state energy department.