India to strengthen its hydropower portfolio

India to strengthen its hydropower portfolio with 60,000 MW addition by 2025

India, with its enormous demand for power to serve its ever-growing economic expansion, is


planning to get an additional 60,000 MW of electricity from various hydro-power projects by the end of

2025, says India's Minister of State for Power, Jairam Ramesh. The Minister, during his recent visit to

Nepal, announced that the country seeks to generate 50,000 MW of hydro-power through its domestic

resources by 2025, while sourcing the rest of 10,000 MW from Bhutan.

River-intensive Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh alone would produce 25,000 MW of entire domestic

hydel power production, while the other 25,000 MW would be generated from new hydel power projects in

Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

India is already into buying power from its neighbour, Bhutan, after it helped the latter develop new hydropower

projects, generating 1,400 MW of electricity, with another 1,100 MW of hydel power generation in

the pipeline.

India has also entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Government of Myanmar to

develop hydro-power projects in the Chindwin basin, with the 1,200 MW Tamanthi project identified as the

first one to deliver. India is also engaged in two large transmission projects in Afghanistan and partnering

with Sri Lanka on setting up of a 500 MW thermal plant in Trincomalee as well as on grid-interconnection.

Power flow between India and Nepal is also expected to go up once the latter start to generate 10,000 MW

of hydel-power within the coming decade and trade it with India. India is also likely to raise the proportion of

hydel power in the hydel-thermal mix from the present 25:75 to a more desirable 40:60 over the coming 25

years
.