The Hindu
Yettinahole (Hassan district), May 24: The foundation stone for the first unit (200 MW) of the greenfield Gundia Hydel Power Project was laid by Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa at Yettinahole in the Western Ghats, about 18 km from Sakleshpur, on Saturday amidst tight security owing to threat of protests by environmentalists.
With this, Karnataka enters the era of state-of-the-art technology with respect to implementation of hydel power projects. The Gundia project is said to be employing technology that ensures least submergence of land. It also proposes to optimise power generation with the help of weirs built across a few streams, which gain strength only during rainy season.
The first phase of the project, which will be implemented in about four years at a cost of Rs.1,120 crore, is expected to generate 613 million units of power at the rate of Rs.1.90 a unit.
About 20 environmentalists, who had announced that they would stage a black-flag demonstration against the project, were detained by the police when they were entering Sakleshpur town. Twenty activists of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha were also taken into preventive detention. They were all released later.
The environmentalists had on Friday accused the State government of violating the norms by gearing up to commence the project work without getting clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). Responding to this, the Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd., which is implementing the project, clarified that getting environmental clearance was only a formality as it had been indicated that clearance would be given in June.
KPCL Managing Director J.M.Jaamdar told presspersons that the MoEF had sent a letter to the KPCL permitting it to go ahead with “pre-construction” works such as conducting the survey, demarcating the forest land, inviting tenders and so on. He said the KPCL had satisfactorily completed all the formalities involved in getting environmental clearance.
The project, which has two generating units with a capacity of 200 MW each, will be built across the Gundia river, a tributary of the Kumaradhara, with its source in the Western Ghats near Kudremukh of Chickmaglaur district and which flows through the districts of Hassan and Dakshina Kannada.
About 700 hectares will be submerged, and 168 families will lose their land, including 43 families, which have to be rehabilitated.
The Chief Minister assured the people of Sakleshpur that the government would provide the best resettlement package to the affected families.