Editor,
The CMD of Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) has told media persons yesterday (19/7/2023) that his company has quite a number of hydro power projects in the pipeline to be taken up to solve the perennial problem of power deficit in Meghalaya and avoid dependency on power from other power suppliers to Meghalaya and also to alleviate from regular huge power payment to them.
Now may I ask from him what has prevented his company from taking up these prospective viable power projects like the 480 MW Kynshi-I, 210 MW Leshka, 240 MW Umngot besides a host of smaller megawatts projects.
To take up these projects, it may need huge investment and require some years of gestation period but if and when they are commissioned the power generated from these projects is not only sufficient for power requirements of the State but also can export power outside our State and thereby bring in huge revenue for MeECL. We all dream for that to happen.
When will the happy days return to MeECL like in the days when its predecessor, MeSEB, had surplus power generation? Can the CMD backed by the expertise of the members of Board of Directors and so many engineers under his stewardship of MeECL who are experts in the subject can overturn the precarious unenviable position which the MeECL is in now? I hope that they can do it with the help of the leadership of the Power Department of Meghalaya.
However, going by records of the last 50 years plus the Power Department leadership has miserably failed to provide the leadership that the Board/Corporation needed most.
Philip Marweiñ,
Senior Journalist,
Shillong.
