N-E power to light up North 038; West

Bids for the transmission project running from Biswanath Chariali in Assam close to Arunachal Pradesh to Agra in Uttar Pradesh 8212; covering a distance of over 1800 km 8212; are expected to be invited next month and the Government is also expected to move a Cabinet note simultaneously to get the Rs 9000 crore project approved.

In fact, given the potential of the North-East and the chicken neck region that the transmission lines have to cross in Siliguri, West Bengal, this project would be one of the worlds first such projects where each transmission pole with 800 KV lines would be carrying 6000 MW of power in direct current mode from the North-East to the North till Agra.

While sources said that a project with similar specifications is being attempted in China, at present, only Brazil has been able to build a 600 KV line that has the capacity to carry 3500 MW of power DC mode.

Some equipment companies have already tested prototypes for this 800 KV DC technology and sources said that it is a race between China and India on who commissions this technology first.

The reason why Powergrid is attempting this task is that the transmission lines have to pass through the narrow width of around 18 km chicken neck region with Nepal on one side and Bangladesh on the other.

This chicken neck region already has railway lines, oil/gas pipelines, national highways running through this stretch and, therefore, the transmission 8220;highway8221; project has to be so designed that maximum power can be evacuated by occupying the least amount of space.

According to the project specifications, these 800 kv DC lines, 5 to 6 in number carrying 6000 MW of power each, would be built within half-a-km space. Sources said that a lesser configuration say like that used in Brazil would have occupied much more space, which is not available on account of the chicken neck and would have also resulted in a 8220;steel jungle8221; which is not environment friendly.

Sources said as work on some of the large North-East projects such as the Subansiri hydel project, the Teesta hydel projects having started, work on the transmission project has to begin immediately before 8220;right of way8221; through the chicken neck area becomes an issue and the complete power potential in the North-East cannot be evacuated as there may not be enough space to erect these transmission lines on account of competing demands from railways or for that matter even national highways.

Rather, this single transmission highway from Assam all the way to Agra is understood to be a more efficient option. Under the plan, power from various stations in and around Assam, especially Arunachal Pradesh which has the highest power potential, would be pooled at Biswanath Chariali and then sent off through the transmission lines to Agra, from where it will then be re-transmitted to states in the northern region and even the western region. A similar pooling would be done in Siliguri to evacuate around 3000 MW of power from the Teesta project to be sent through the transmission highway to Agra.

The transmission project is scheduled to be completed by 2011.

Given that this was cutting edge technology and therefore there was no consultancy expertise to work out the feasibility of this project, sources said Powergrid pooled expertise of individuals from worldover to work out the project specifications. Once successful, they said, this could be a new area where the PSU can offer consultancy services to companies the world over.