Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla did “a bit of frank talking” about the power situation in the North East region Saturday at an infrastructure meet in Guwahati and lamented "the tragedy with the North East is that action has been pathetically slow” and “the scenario is that of scarcity in the midst of plenty." Lal Thanhawla pointed out the power potential of the region, which at over 63,000 MW which is around 40% of the country’s total, but dismayed that only 3% has been harnessed so far. "Numerous conferences and conclaves discussing this important issue have been organized both at regional as well as national level… recommendations were made, recorded, circulated or filed. Very little follow-up has been noticed,” the five-time Chief Minister said, adding, “Take any infrastructure-centric economic indicator and you will find this region placed far below the national average." For whatever power projects already exist, he said, non-renovation is another problem and that this had led to declining efficiency, a situation he termed "a criminal waste of assets". The veteran politician also pushed for “added incentives” to encourage private investments in the power sector to offset the disability cost of projects caused by geographical and topographical disadvantages. He also pushed for micro-hydel generation in the region’s hilly areas because “the terrain and environmental concerns support "the technology". He also touched upon transmission and distribution (“the weakest link in the region’s power system”) and pointed out the Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses varied between 32.06% in Tripura and 73.04% in Arunachal Pradesh in 2010-2011. Lal Thanhawla warned against going ahead with what he called the “Centre’s ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy” given the region’s “peculiar cost and terrain disability”. "The all-India formula to evaluate economic viability must not be applied as a matter of routine. According to a study sponsored by North East Council, cost of project, in North East, and especially in the hill areas, is 15 to 20% more than that in similar areas outside the region," he said. The CM also took several examples to prove his point. "The PPP mode for power generation projects as suggested by the Centre would not work in this region for the simple reason that private stakeholders shy away. We have experienced this in Mizoram. The 210 MW Tuivai Hydel Project was taken up for execution on PPP mode with 20% Viability Gap Funding approved by the Finance Ministry. And yet not a single private investor submitted financial bid even after extension of the date," he revealed. "But in the final analysis it is action on the ground that matters most. Sadly, on this count there is not much in the North East to write home about. Sometimes I get the feeling that Central agencies give low priority to projects in this region. Or else how does one explain why the NTPC, after having signed MOU with Govt. of Mizoram about 6 years back for execution of the 460 MW Kolodyne HEP, has not done anything at all at the project site even today?" he asked.
