NEPAL TO HELP FULFIL INDIA’S POWER NEEDS

[Arun III project, proposed to be located in Sankhuwasabha district of Nepal which is 657 km from Kathmandu via Birat Nagar, is likely to be completed by 2017-'18 through which 21.9% power would be provided free of cost to Nepal while the remaining would flow to India through Muzaffarpur which will be a gateway for power transmission. ]

By Anand Bodh

River Arun. Image courtesy >Bhojpur Samaj Hong Kong

SHIMLA, India: In the coming years, Nepal is going to contribute in fulfilling the electricity demand of India as Himachal Pradesh based SJVN Limited, a public sector undertaking (PSU), which is going to execute the 900 MW Arun III project in the Himalayan country would lay a 315 km transmission line at a cost of Rs 800 crore to ensure flow of 78.1% power from the project to India, while 21.9% power would be given free to Nepal. 

Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), SJVN, R P Singh told TOI that Arun III project, proposed to be located in Sankhuwasabha district of Nepal which is 657 km from Kathmandu via Birat Nagar, is likely to be completed by 2017-'18 through which 21.9% power would be provided free of cost to Nepal while the remaining would flow to India through Muzaffarpur which will be a gateway for power transmission. 

"A 315 km long transmission line would be laid of which 210 km would be in Nepal while the remaining 105 km will be in India. Arun III project would come up at a cost of around Rs 5100 crore and we have already submitted a detailed project report to the Central Electricity Authority(CEA) for approval this year," he said. The CMD said that the Nepalese project would be started immediately after getting approval from the CEA. After executing the country's largest underground 1,500 MW hydro-electric power project in Kinnaur that is fulfilling the electricity demands of seven northern states of India, SJVN Limited, which is a joint venture of Government of India and Himachal Pradesh government, has made forays into the hydro power sector in the neighbouring countries of Nepal and Bhutan, where it has bagged three hydro-power projects of 900 MW and two of 600 MW each respectively. 

SJVN Ltd will be constructing two hydro power projects on Wangchu and Kholongchu rivers, both of 600 MW each, in Bhutan. A detailed project report has already been submitted to CEA this year. The present authorized share capital of SJVN Limited is Rs 7,000 crore while its cash reserve is Rs 3,000 crore to which Rs 500 crore is added every year due to which the company is able to fund new projects. 

@ The times of India

CHINESE STUDY SAYS DAM DIDN’T AFFECT CLIMATE CHANGE

[The results of the study were the first to be released publicly since controversy over the dam has grown this year. Critics of the dam and some Chinese news organizations raised questions in the spring about whether the dam had worsened the effects of a drought that hit the Yangtze River region of central and southern China. The Three Gorges Dam stands in the middle of the Yangtze River.]

By Edward Wong

The Three Gorges Dam in Yangtze River in China,
The largest dam in the world

BEIJING — A scientific study has found that the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project, has not contributed to climate change, according to a report by Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency.

The study, published by the Social Sciences Academic Press under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, focused on climate change and found that the dam’s environmental impact was limited to a 12-mile radius, the Xinhua article said.

“No direct link has been found between the dam and local severe droughts and floods in recent years, according to the report, which instead laid the blame on extreme weather conditions caused by abnormal atmospheric circulation and air temperature mainly incurred by changes in ocean temperature and snow conditions at the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,” according to the article, which was published Friday.

The results of the study were the first to be released publicly since controversy over the dam has grown this year. Critics of the dam and some Chinese news organizations raised questions in the spring about whether the dam had worsened the effects of a drought that hit the Yangtze River region of central and southern China. The Three Gorges Dam stands in the middle of the Yangtze River.

The newspaper Shanghai Daily reported in early June that an official in the drought relief and flood control bureau said that the dam’splanners had failed to gauge its impact properly.

The official, Wang Jingquan, said that water levels in two lakes downstream from the dam, Dongting in Hunan Province and Poyang in Jiangxi Province, had fallen, in part because of the storage of water in the reservoir behind the dam.

In May, two Chinese officials warned of “urgent problems” associated with the dam.

The drought was the worst in the region in 50 years, and water levels in the Yangtze and bodies of water linked to it fell drastically. This led to greater scrutiny of the dam. On the Internet, many Chinese asked whether the dam was at least partly responsible for the drought. Several scientists, including at least one American, said then that there was no evidence that the dam had caused the drought. Rainfall in early June began to alleviate the drought.

The Xinhua report on Friday said the recent study, called “Green Book of Climate Change: Annual Report on Actions to Address Climate Change,” recommended that “the authorities strengthen monitoring, evaluation and research of the climate condition in regions around the dam.”

The drought this year also raised questions about another ambitious water project, the South-North Water Diversion, which will cost $62 billion. Chinese leaders aim to transfer at least six trillion gallons of water a year via canals from the Yangtze and its tributaries to cities in the north, where droughts are much worse than in the center and the south.

The middle route of the project, which starts at the Danjiangkou Reservoir in Hubei Province, is expected to begin operating in 2014. The eastern route, which runs alongside the ancient Grand Canal, is expected to be operational by 2013. Critics say the government has not done enough studies to determine the project’s impact on waterways in the south.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 13, 2011

An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a proposed water project that would transfer water via canals from the Yangtze and its tributaries to cities in north China. It is the South-North Water Diversion, not the North-South Water Diversion.

@ The New York Times