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Kerala power project partly completed... after 13 years!

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The partial commissioning of the Lower Periyar hydroelectric project is not considered an event that calls for celebrations in Kerala.

The project took 13 long years to complete just one of the three 60 mw generators and cost the state dearly in terms of time overrun and price escalation. Originally estimated at Rs 21 million dollars, the project has already eaten up $86 million. Had this project been completed on time, the state government would have been able to take up other projects and thus prevented the serious power crisis that has been crippling the state for the past five years.

Earlier this year, the government was forced to impose a 100 per cent power cut on high tension and extra high tension consumers, causing a massive loss in industrial and agricultural production. And even though the state received normal monsoon this year, the power cut has been restored to only 30 per cent of the regular supply.

The commissioning of the Lower Periyar project is not expected to bring much relief to Kerala, which will have to wait for power supplied from the West Bengal before it can lift the present cut. West Bengal, incidentally, is ruled by a Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led alliance, as in Kerala.

Several hiccups from the project's beginning and inefficient management by the executing agency, the Kerala State Electricity Board, contributed to the long delay.

A major impediment was the delay in supplying the equipment by the Allahabad-based Triveni Structurals. Although the public sector company repeatedly failed to keep its schedule, the KSEB did not take any step to force the company to stick to its schedule or make alternate arrangements.

Lower Periyar is the first major project to be commissioned after the Idukki hydroelectric project in the mid-1970s. This is the third largest project after Idukki and Sabarigiri.

Power Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the Left Democratic Front government was confident of making Kerala a power surplus state before the government relinquishes office in the next three years. However, industrial circles are sceptical about the claim since the state has not been allotted adequate fuel by the Union government to generate the 3,300 mw power required to meet the state's expected total demand by the AD 2000.

The state has been allotted naphtha sufficient to generate about 700 mw power. Barring the Kayamkulan thermal power project, other projects at various stages of implementation are small ones which will not make a significant impact on the power situation.

The state will not be able to improve the situation without implementing more fuel-based projects since all the major hydro projects are held up at the Centre on environmental grounds.

Although several private parties have proposed fuel-based projects, the government will not be able to ensure their implementation without ensuring adequate fuel allocation from the Centre. Industrial circles feel that the state government had not done adequate lobbying at the Centre despite the presence of a friendly government in New Delhi.