NEW DELHI: The power ministry is priming state-run majors under its wings to take over 29 hydel projects entailing estimated investments of upto Rs 2.7 lakh crore that are languishing with private developers.
The projects have a combined capacity of 30,000 megawatt, or roughly 7.5% of India’s total installed generation capacity, and were awarded to private companies by six northeastern states but have not made much progress due to reasons ranging from lack of funding to expertise, power minister R K Singh told TOI.
The move underlines the Narendra Modi government’s renewed thrust on hydel as part of its climate action strategy to achieve 50% of power from non-fossil sources by 2030 and make India net zero by 2070. Currently coal accounts for 70% of electricity supply and renewables 25%.
