Stop Teesta projects: West Bengal

bdnews24.com: West Bengal wants the Indian government to stop all future hydel projects on the Teesta river, the state's irrigation minister Rajib Bandopadhyay says. Bandopadhyay told bdnews24.com that he has taken up the issue with chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has agreed to move Delhi on the issue.

The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation ( NHPC) has already set up three hydel projects on the Teesta in East Sikkim and at Kalijhora and Ranvi on the Bengal-Sikkim border.

"They (NHPC) have plans for ten more such projects to generate power from the Teesta. But this cannot be allowed," Bandopadhyay said.

The irrigation minister said that while these projects may be run of the river types and would not involve much reservoir storage, sudden release of water from the upstream during the monsoon could lead to an Uttarakhand type disaster from areas alongside the Teesta downstream.

"It could wipe out huge populations in West Bengal and perhaps further down in Bangladesh if there's such surge in water volume due to abrupt release," Bandopadhyay said, citing experts in his department.

The town of Jalpaiguri suffered heavily during 1968 in such an event when the Teesta swelled up suddenly due to heavy rush of water from upstream.

The NHPC, he said, have finalised these projects including the ten latest ones without consulting West Bengal, which was cleqrly unacceptable.

"Even officials of the Central Water Commission (CWC) told me they were not aware of these projects," Bandopadhyay said.

His department has opened two helplines to enable people in remote areas especially in upstream locations to alert them if there is a flash flood noticed upstream. “That will help us tackle the floods downstream."