Empowering Tribal Women

Tribal women to run mini-hydel plants in Andhra Pradesh.

For the first time in the history of power sector in Andhra Pradesh, the tribal women today entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government to run four mini-hydel plants with a combined capacity of 6.6 Mw being set up at an investment of Rs 31.72 crore. The newly formed Tribal Power Corporation (Tripco) by the state tribal welfare department has constituted project committees comprising representatives of women organisations from the village of the project site and also in the catchment areas for three projects of 1.2 Mw capacity each in the Rampachodavaram Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) area and one project of 3 Mw capacity under Bhadrachalam ITDA limits. It may be recalled that the state government in the past had issued orders to not only make local tribals the stakeholders in these projects but also let the entire profit from these units go to the local tribals for developing their areas. ....the discoms will purchase the power while various agencies, including APTransco, APGenco and Non Conventional Energy Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (Nedcap) will assist the project committees in the smooth running of the mini-hydel projects. ....The state government agencies have concluded that there is a huge hydro power potential of up to 200 Mw capacity available in the tribal areas. The state government has so far identified 79 potential locations with an estimated installed capacity of 142.8 Mw. Of this, detailed project reports for 21 locations with a combined capacity of 26.21 Mw at an outlay of Rs 139.23 crore have been sent to the ministry of non-conventional energy resources.[BS]