Will industries suck Hirakud dry?; Report by expressbuzz

Following report is from http://expressbuzz.com:

SAMBALPUR: Will Hirakud dam dry up? With a number of power plants coming up in the upstream along the Mahanadi river in Chhattisgarh, water wars between Orissa and Chhattisgarh may become a reality. The Orissa Government seems to be unmindful of the way the thermal power plants, which would be mainly depending on the Mahanadi river, are coming up. And if that happens, thousands of acres of land in Orissa will become barren throwing up a host of other problems.

Using Hirakud dam for controlling flood will become a thing of the past.If reports are to be believed, work on many thermal power plants is underway and many are in the pipeline in Raigarh, Jangjir and Champa districts in Chhattisgarh. Most of these plants in their project reports have made it clear that they would be drawing water from the Mahanadi river. And if these projects are approved, it will not take long when water will stop flowing into Hirakud dam reservoir, making it useless.

NTPC is coming up with a 4,000 MW thermal power plant, AES Chhattisgarh projects will set up 1,440 MW plant, Green Infrastructure (1,200 MW unit), Wardha Power Company (3,600 MW plant), Essar Power Chhattisgarh Limited, SKS Ispat and Power have proposals (1,200 MW plant each), Jindal India Thermal Power (1,320 MW), Visa Power (1,200 MW plant), Patni Power Project and Mahavir Global Coal (540 MW plant each). All these projects are located in villages across Raigarh district and are at various stages of commissioning. Similarly, DB Power and Videocon Industries has proposed to generate 1,320 MW thermal power while Ispat Industries, GMR Energies, Athena Chhattisgarh Power, Chambal Infrastructure Ventures and Jain Energy have proposal to produce 1,200 MW of thermal power each.

This apart, Bhusan Power and Steel proposes to generate 1,000 MW, Sona Power, Ind Barath, Suryachakra Power Corporation and Korba West Power Company have proposed to generate 600 MW thermal power each and BEC Power has submitted a proposal to produce 500 MW of thermal power.