Though there is a hue and cry over reduction of water level in the river Mahanadi due to barrages upstream in Chhattisgarh, the power generation in Hirakud and Chiplima hydro power stations increased in the last three years.
This fact came to the fore from the information given to the House by Energy Minister Sushant Singh on Friday on questions by Dilip Ray. Ray wanted to know how many hydro power stations are there in the State and on which rivers, their power generation capacity, the power generated by them in the last five years and if the power generation has been affected due to barrages built on the upstream of the rivers.
Minister Singh replied that the State has power stations at Burla and Chiplima on the Mahanadi river, Rengali on the Brahmani river, Bareniput on the Kolab, Mukhiguda on the Indravati and Anukadeli on the Machhakund river. He said that the Government has not assessed if the power generation in these plants has fallen due to the barrages on the rivers’ upstream.
Singh stated that in 2013-14, 7,204.67 million unit (MU) power was produced in the seven power stations. However, in 2015-16, the power production fell to 4,542.05 MU. In 2016-17, the power generation stood at 4,774.21 MU and in 2017-18, it further rose to 5,730.89 MU.
He also stated that from the Burla power station, 701.01 MU power was produced in 2013-14 and in 2015-16, the it fell to 457.09 MU. However, in 2016-17, the power generation stood at 535.88 MU and in 2017-18 , 614.29 MU power was produced .
In the Chiplima power station in 2013-14, 312.23 MU power was produced while it got reduced to 216.75 MU in 2015-16. But in 2017-18, the production rose to 219.23 MU. Except in the Machhakund power unit, where the power generation fell, in all other stations it increased.
In another question by Ray, Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Department Minister Pradip Maharathy said the impact of barrages on the upstream of the rivers and pollution in a few rivers and streamns like Daya and Gangua etc have not impacted the fish production. On the contrary, fish productions have increased in last seven years by 2.5 times. According to Maharathy, while fish production from the rivers of the State in 2010-11 stood at 11,108 MT, in 2016-17, it rose to 27,594 MT.
In yet another question of Ray, Water Resources Minister Niranjan Pujari informed that in the Hirakud upsrtream, Chhattisgarh has already built 2,268 barrages and another 443 are under constriction. Similarly, Jharkhand has built 15 barrages on the Brahmani river and three barrages are under constriction. Andhra Pradesh also has been building many dams downstream the rivers flowing from Odisha, including the controversial Polavaram project.