The 12-kilometre-long head race tunnel (HRT) of the now controversial Tapovan Vishnugad hydroelectric power (HEP) project is a kilometre away from the main city of Joshimath and is at least 600 metres below the ground - this is what NTPC officials have informed the power ministry to explain that the company’s HEP project has no role in the subsidence of the region, sources told Moneycontrol.
On January 10 evening, the power ministry summoned officials of state-run NTPC Limited to review the subsidence incident in Uttarkhand’s Joshimath region. “NTPC’s director projects Ujjwal Kanti Bhattacharya gave a detailed briefing to the power secretary Alok Kumar. The facts stated by NTPC are that the tunnel is a kilometre away from the city and is 600 metres deep. Besides, NTPC stated that the tunnel was made in 2011 and that back then or in so many years, no such complaints of mass subsidence were ever reported,” said a senior official privy to the development requesting anonymity.
NTPC also told the power ministry that there was no active construction work happening in the area for about two years. “It also cited an old inquiry report of the same tunnel in which the National Institute of Hydrology said that there was no correlation between the water ingress in the tunnel and any outside water,” said a second official requesting anonymity.
The company, which is India’s largest power generator, also placed before the ministry a 2010 report which was commissioned by the district magistrate of Chamoli in 2009 and prepared by members from the national institute of rock mechanics, IIT Roorkee, Wasia Institute of Himalayan Geology and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI). A part of the report stated that “there is no ground evidence of any instability induced by HRT excavation using a tunnel boring machine.”
To be sure, the Jal Shakti ministry has appointed a panel which is investigating the Joshimath subsidence incident and the panel does not include any representatives from the power ministry or NTPC.
Hundreds of houses in Joshimath are in the midst of collapse as the land in the region is sinking, which is called subsidence. According to official figures, as many as 723 houses in nine wards of Joshimath town have developed cracks. Of these, 86 houses fall in the unsafe zone. Meanwhile, 131 families have been shifted to relief camps set up in safer locations.
Residents in the region and several experts say that the HEP project worsened or accelerated the subsidence in Joshimath as it disturbed the fragile ecosystem of the area. As the situation worsened from January 3, two days later, on January 5, the government stopped all works at NTPC’s Tapovan Vishnugad project.
NTPC, in an official statement, said the tunnel of its Tapovan Vishnugad hydel project has nothing to do with the landslide happening in Joshimath. “NTPC wants to inform with full responsibility that the tunnel has nothing to do with the landslide happening in Joshimath city. In such an odd situation, the company expresses its sympathy and sensitivity to the people of Joshimath city,” the power generator said in a statement, dated January 5.
As for the hydroelectric project, its construction began in 2006 and was to be completed in March 2013. But, almost 10 years later, the project is still 'under construction'. Besides, the project has also undergone a major cost escalation from the initial approved investment of Rs 2,978.5 crore to now an anticipated Rs 7,103 crore, which is an increase of 138.4 percent. In between, the cost of the project was revised to Rs 5,867.38 crore.
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