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Home / India / Behind hydel project washed away, a troubled trail to accident in 2011

Behind hydel project washed

away, a troubled trail to
accident in 2011
“Imagine the odds of a single, dislodged boulder killing him while nobody
standing around received a scratch. In hindsight, was it just a freak
incident or an early warning? Today, so many are feared dead and
everything has been washed away,” says Kolkata-based realtor Kamal
Surana.

Written by Jay Mazoomdaar | New Delhi | Updated: February 11, 2021 7:49:38 am

Rescue operations at Raini village in Chamoli. (Photo: Gajendra Yadav)

On Independence Day in 2011, Rakesh Mehra, the owner of Ludhiana-based Rajit

Paints Group, drove up to Chamoli in Uttarakhand to inaugurate the trial run of a
unit of his mini-hydel project on Rishi Ganga river adjacent to the Nandadevi
biosphere reserve. At the project site, a boulder slid overhead and fell on him.

“Imagine the odds of a single, dislodged boulder killing him while nobody standing
around received a scratch. In hindsight, was it just a freak incident or an early
warning? Today, so many are feared dead and everything has been washed away,”
says Kolkata-based realtor Kamal Surana who had sold the power project to Mehra
in 2006.
Between the 2011 boulder slide that killed Mehra and the 2021 glacier burst that
buried the entire project along with several workers, the Rishi Ganga mini-hydel
plant suffered severe damage in the floods of June 2013 and a cloud burst at the site
in August 2016.

Uttarakhand Disaster: How trapped people are being rescued | Tapov…

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In 2019, the local community sought judicial remedy to stop “rampant blasting,
reckless dumping of muck next to the riverbed, and tree felling” that allegedly
continued till mid-2020, destabilising the slopes and blocking the river channel.

The flash flood Sunday was the latest scar in the project’s back story that began in
1996 when Rishi Ganga Power Corporation Ltd was set up by Surana in Kolkata.
The project — it was cleared in 2000 — has changed hands twice since then. “I
purchased the land and got all clearances from the Mayawati government in UP
and the Centre. It was before the state of Uttarakhand came to be,” recalls Surana.

Surana had no history or experience of developing power plants, and the project
site was precariously close to one of India’s most pristine high-altitude landscapes
and a UNESCO world heritage site. And yet, since it was a mini-hydel project, it was
exempt from environmental impact assessment.

But the project did not take off for years. “I had the loan sanctioned for the project.
But setbacks happen in businesses, and in life. So I passed it on to the Mehras of
Ludhiana,” says Surana. He wouldn’t specify how Mehra came into the picture,
except to say that it happened in a “world much smaller than we think”.

Also Read |Uttarakhand flash flood: Cop’s body washed up 110 km away, at
ancestors’ ghat

Site of the Tapovan hydel project as rescue works are underway on Wednesday after a glacier broke off
in Joshimath causing massive ooding in Dhauli Ganga River, in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
(Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)

Like Surana, Mehra of Rajit Paints had no background in power plant development.
But he secured loans totalling Rs 39 crore from Punjab National Bank by 2008 and
embarked on the project.
“Initially, it was meant to be a 8.25 MW project but Mehra enhanced the capacity to
13.2 MW for 21 years. The plant was almost ready when Mehra died at the site in
2011. Then the company apparently ran into trouble,” says Jitendra Singh, who
surveyed the plant for certified emission reduction credits under the clean
development mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCC) in 2010.

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Mehra’s death reportedly triggered a dispute in his extended family over the
control of his businesses. By 2013, the dues to PNB had swelled to Rs 66 crore. The
bank classified it as NPA in February 2016. Months later, a severe cloud burst hit
the plant, further reducing chances of recovery. The matter moved to the National
Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), and Delhi-based Kundan Group took over the
project in December 2018.

As work resumed, residents of Raini village, the closest settlement and site of the
Chipko movement in the 1970s, complained of reckless construction practices.
Hearing a PIL, the Uttarakhand High Court issued notices to the Central and state
governments in May 2019.

“We also went to the National Green Tribunal but did not get any relief. They
formed committees with the same local officials who were indifferent to our plight.
When these committees came for inspection, they did not even call us. The
company continued with regular blasting till mid-2020,” says Sangram Singh Rawat,
a former sarpanch of Raini.
Rescue operations near Raini village in Uttarakhand on Tuesday. (Photo: Gajendra Yadav)

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The company, however, denies the charges. “There are vested interests behind the
litigation. We were not involved in blasting, muck dumping, etc., as we only did
major repairs of damage caused by floods, besides certain modifications,
upgradation and innovations,” says a Kundan Group spokesperson.
According to the spokesperson, the project has now suffered damages worth Rs 125-
150 crore and the company will provide education to the children of the dead or
missing plant workers.

There is no word on rebuilding yet. “The entire plant is destroyed. The rebuilding of
the plant shall be ascertained based out of various factors,” says the spokesperson.

Rawat, the former sarpanch, wants companies and investors, if not the
government, to “learn their lessons” at least now. “How many more landslides,
floods and deaths will it take? How much more destruction?” he says.

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Says Surana: “Policies are decided by governments. But certainly there are heavy
risks in putting money and projects in such fragile, unpredictable areas.”

Does he feel relieved that circumstances made him pull out? “As they say, whatever
the almighty does, is for good. But I had plans to settle there after retiring from
business. Such a beautiful place. I remember those villagers. Those lovely people
trusted me. It’s so tragic what all has happened.”

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