NEW DELHI: Three days after the BJP Sikkim unit wrote to PM Narendra Modi expressing its concerns over the recent nod given by a central panel to resume construction of the Teesta-III hydropower project, Congress too on Wednesday opposed the approval, claiming the move was a “thoughtless clearance” as the threat of disaster continued to persist at the dam site.
“There are also cascading and multiplying effects on habitations downstream. We had issued a detailed statement on this issue on Aug 24, 2024,” Congress general secretary and former environment minister Jairam Ramesh said on X.
Referring to the glacial lake outburst-linked flash floods that destroyed the Teesta-III project in Oct 2023, Congress had last year alleged that hydel projects in ecologically fragile regions had been coming up over the past few years “without giving adequate thought to their cumulative environmental impacts”.
“Dams on the Teesta are the prime, but not the only, example of how – in the name of development – ecology is being fundamentally altered, with grave consequences for this and future generations,” it said. The party had also flagged that a spate of hydro projects on the Teesta had caused the river to become more flood-prone, washing away sections of National Highway-10, the lifeline of Kalimpong in West Bengal and Sikkim.
BJP Sikkim president D R Thapa on Feb 2 wrote to Modi, urging him to direct immediate withholding of the green panel’snod for the Teesta-III project until all necessary scientific reviews, including the revised Probable Maximum Flood study, are completed and independently validated.
Thapa also urged the PM to order a fresh and comprehensive environmental impact assessment (EIA) to incorporate recent climate data, glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) risks, and the state’s evolving ecological challenges before final decision.
The expert panel had on Jan 10 given its conditional nod to certain amendments in the green clearance to resume construction of the 1,200 MW Teesta-III project. Redesigning the dam and replacing the earlier ‘concrete faced rockfill dam’ with a ‘concrete gravity dam’ is one of the amendments.
The panel, however, put a condition, saying “all necessary permissions from Central Electricity Authority (CEA)/Central Water Commission (CWC) or any other agency with respect to project design and other safety parameters shall be obtained before starting the project construction work”.
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