CORRESPONDENCE
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 88, NO. 6, 25 MARCH 2005
850
Hydro-electric power plant projects in northeastern India
The northeastern region of India including
Assam and Arunachal Pradesh is blessed
with abundant natural resources. The Gov-
ernment of India (GOI) is planning to use
valuable resources of the region to en-
hance the standard of living of the people
of the region. The northeast has a hydro-
power potential of 32,000 MW which
constitutes about 38% of India’s total
hydro-power potential of about 84,000 MW.
GOI has planned five hydro-electric power
plants on Siang (Dihang) and Subansiri
rivers in northeastern India to generate
17,300 MW of electric power. The Suma-
tra and Andaman earthquakes of 26 De-
cember 2004 have left no room not to
speculate a major earthquake in Assam re-
gion where the last major earthquake1 (M
8.5–8.7) occurred about 55 years ago.
Judging by the plans, programmes, poli-
cies and bureaucratic attitudes related to the
development of the resources, especially
the water resources, one can discern
a disturbing paradigm that is not at all
favourable to the region in the long run
in view of the seismic vulnerability of the
region. Although the GOI is making ef-
forts to monitor crustal movements and
monitor seismicity of the area, the risk
sustains. Secondly, with the development
of this potential as being planned, the re-
gion will have to accept submergence of
large areas of natural beauty with inescap-
able destruction of flora and fauna.
The proposed power plants may be
placed in such a seismically vulnerable
region only if we consider proper seismic
attenuation relations and such relations
invariably do not exist due to lack of seismic
instrumentation in the region. The proposed
dams for the hydro-electric power plants
will store huge amounts of water. In the
event of any major earthquake disaster, if
proper seismic design is not followed, the
disaster of dams will result in havoc similar
to what was recently faced by the peopl