Uttarakhand Flood Hits 13.2MW Rishiganga, 520MW NTPC’s Under-Construction Hydro Projects

The glacial burst in Uttarakhand, which led to the rising of water levels in Rishiganga river, had washed away 13.2 MW Rishiganga small hydro project and also damaged part of NTPC’s under-construction 520 MW Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project.

While informing about the sad and tragic Uttarakhand disaster, the Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy, RK Singh added that he is continuously monitoring the situation to ensure quick relief and rescue operations and he is also in constant touch with Uttrakhand's  Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

Speaking about resue operations he said, “while rescue operation is on, we are assessing the ground situation with the help of district administration and police. SDRF, ITBP, and Indian army are carrying out rescue operation. Divers from Indian Navy are also in standby.”

He mentioned that the NTPC’s hydro power project which is under construction at Tapovan Vishnugad, is a run of river project with capacity of 4X130 MW. The project is still under construction and all the units were slated to be commissioned in 2022-23. The contracting agencies whose labours were deployed include Rithwik Projects Pvt Ltd, HCC Ltd and OM Metal Infra Projects Ltd.

Power Minister further informed that the extent of damage and casualties is being assessed. Due to Sunday, number of workers working in the NTPC hydro plant were relatively less and this has helped lower the impact of the disaster.

Power Minister said that, “I have asked NTPC’s top management to travel to the site of the disaster for better coordination of relief operations. Twelve persons have already been rescued. We are still trying to ascertain the exact number of missing workers from the project site and we are praying that the causalities are not much.”