Uttarakhand to move Supreme Court on Tehri Dam

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The Uttarakhand government has decided to move the Supreme Court for the transfer of 25 per cent shares of Uttar Pradesh in the Tehri dam.

The move came after the law department gave its go ahead to the government to move the apex court to file the petition on its behalf to get back 25 per cent of equity which is currently owned by Uttar Pradesh.

The 25 per cent share would give the hill state a tremendous relief from acute power shortage which it is facing after the centre scrapped a series of hydel projects on Bhagirathi river.

Under the petition, the government would lay its claim on entire 25 equity of Uttar Pradesh under the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2000.

Faced with an acute shortage of power, the government had been intensively campaigning for the transfer of the 25 per cent equity share in the Tehri project, which is current generating 1400 MW of power.

Several times in the past, the hill state took up the issue with the centre demanding transfer of the 25 per cent equity of the project under the provision of the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2000.

There is a clause under the section 47(3) of the Act, under which investments made prior to the creation of Uttarakhand should go to the state where the project is located. Uttar Pradesh is a 25 per cent shareholder in the Tehri project, while the centre's share is 75 per cent. Uttarakhand currently gets 12-13 per cent of free power from Tehri dam which has been built with an investment of Rs 10,000 crore.

The Tehri project provides 1,000 MW peaking power to 9 beneficiaries � Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

Apart from an annual generation of 2,797 MW power, the project also provides irrigation benefits to 8.74 lacs hectare area in Uttar Pradesh and drinking water facilities to Delhi (300 cusecs) and Uttar Pradesh (200 cusecs).