HOW MUCH has environmental activism cost the controversial Tehri Hydro Project in recent months? Very heavily, if the dam officials are to be believed. According to them, the 2,400 mw project has lost heavily both in terms of time and revenue.
"It may take us one more year to wrap up Stage I of the hydel project, which was otherwise scheduled to be completed in 2002," says Mukut Bihari Aggarawal, Executive Director, Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC). The delay of a year, according to
him, means the THDC would tot up a revenue loss of Rs 500 crore, or Rs 1.5 crore a day.
Also, taps in Delhi and UP will stay dry. Drinking water for Delhi (300 cusecs) and western Uttar Pradesh (200 cusecs) would not arrive for a year. Besides, 2.7 lakh hectares of land in UP would have to go without irrigation.
First it was the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal's threat to go on dharna if the dam's tunnels were closed that delayed the project.
A month later, it was the turn of noted environmentalist Sunder Lal Bahuguna, who sat on the dharna at the dam site. On April 24, he was immediately whisked away to nearby Narendra Nagar town by the local authorities to facilitate work on the dam. The
Chipko leader went on a fast immediately after his arrest. Both Singhal and Bahuguna feel that building of dam would pollute the Bhagirathi river.
Bahuguna's fight, however, goes beyond that. He is opposed to the dam for two more reasons: the Centre's inability to resolve the issue of rehabilitation is one. The other is that the mega dam is located in a seismic zone.
This is perhaps the fourth time the septuagenarian activist has gone on an indefinite fast. Each time, the work at the dam site had to be stopped. Due to this the project has been haemorhaging ever since it started coming up in 1978. "The cost of the
project, which was estimated at Rs 192 crore in 1968, went up to Rs 5,209 crore in 1999," says AGM (Planning), Prasidh Singh.
Similarly, Singhal's threat to go on dharna would not only result in delay Stage I, it would cause heavy revenue loss to the Centre.
Aggarawal says the THDC would not be able to complete tunnelling work now that the volume of water in the Bhagirathi has increased due to melting of snow in the higher reaches.
