Power and North East: The Hydro Power Scenario of North East

The North-East Region (NER) of India which comprises of eight states, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and about 4500 km i. e.98 % of its border is with five different countries of South AsiaNepal, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The region stands way below in comparison with the rest of India in terms of socio-economic indicators. The whole region is endowed with various perennial rivers and water bodies, hence, the huge hydro electricity potential. The power generation opportunities especially in the hydro power are there in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Meghalaya. But it has been seen that hydropower development depends on various factors which include technical difficulties and political opposition, dearth of adequately investigated projects, land acquisition problem, environmental concern, regulatory issue, power evacuation problems, long clearance and approval procedure, the dearth of good contractor, and sometime law and order problem and inter-state issue are the cause for the slow development of hydropower. Exploitation of the large hydro potential in the NER could be used for export to the power deficit Northern and Western regions of the country. The spill-over benefits for the region would be the development of infrastructure such as roads, communications, and electricity supply to remote hilly areas, resulting in better quality of life. The study aims to find out the present power scenario in the north-east region in regard with hydropower. It also highlights the future prospects and challenges ahead in the hydro power sector of this region.