AD Hydro Power Limited

completed

The project is a 192 MW run-of-river hydropower project in the Kullu Valley of India’s Himachal Pradesh State. The project consists of a high-head power plant that utilizes flows from a combination of glacial snow melt and monsoon rains to supply peaking reservoirs via tunnels from the catchment basins of the Allain and Duhangan rivers. The project will divert a portion of the flow of the two rivers via a steel-lined pressure shaft tunnel to feed a single subterranean powerhouse equipped with two 96 MW Pelton turbines. The setting for the project is the steep terrain of the Himalayas with the diversion dams on the two rivers. Water is returned to the Allain River via a tailrace downstream from the powerhouse. Power is evacuated to the regional grid from an outdoor switchyard via a 185 km transmission line. The project has been developed to meet the projected increase in the demand for electricity throughout northern India in the next decade, and it is consistent with the Government of India’s goal to double the existing percentage of electricity generated from renewable sources, especially hydropower. The ESIA documentation was prepared by Environmental Resource Management (ERM) Pvt. Ltd. over a period between January 2003 and September 2004. During that time, the consultants and representatives of the project Sponsor undertook extensive consultation with the project-affected population on a family and group basis. The chronology of the public disclosure process for the project is given on page56 of the Addendum to the ESIA.