Yesterday we have discussed about the development in Uttarakhand. This is a recession time. Many sectors are feeling the heat of the same.
The hydropower sector in Uttarakhand is also feeling the pinch of the recession, with developers,investors wary of making new investments in the sector.Officials sources said development of hydropower was itself a slow process and the slowdown has only created more problems.
Recently, WWI-RRE, a consortium of RR Energy and Worlds Window Impex, had agreed to pay Rs 41.5 crore, including an upfront premium of Rs 29.5 crore, considered to be the highest in the country, for building four hydel projects in the Nayar Valley with a total capacity of 23.25 Mw. But, after depositing the initial amount of Rs 50 lakh with the state government, the consortium backed out apparently due to the global recession. Meanwhile, the state government is collecting data to assess the impact of the slowdown on the hydropower sector. “We are not untouched by the slowdown in the hydropower sector. But in order to know the real impact, we are trying to assess it,” a top official said. Officials of private companies in Uttarakhand said the hydropower sector had slowed down during the past one year due to the meltdown and that it would take another six to 12 months to beat the recession.
Central government is thinking of providing the special state status to Uttarakhand.
Over and above the tax incentives, a special infrastructure package is in the offing for the special category states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and the north-eastern states. The government is now planning to announce a specially designed infrastructure package for these states to attract investments and boost the economy. But will the infrastructure companies be eager to grab a pie and be a part of the infrastructure development story in these states?
This would attract more investment into the state. Recently BOC India also announced of its investment plans.
BOC India Ltd, which is part of Germany’s Linde Group, has decided to invest Rs 1,000 crore in enhancing its installed capacity in the next three years (December – 2011). By then, BOC India expects to see a Rs 900-1000 crore increase in revenue earnings. Talking to reporters after the company’s 73rd AGM, BOC India managing director S K Menon said: “We are looking at options of financing the Rs 1000 crore capacity expansion through a 70:30 or a 75:25 debt equity ratio. A portion of the funds may be sourced through internal accruals.” The Uttarakhand plant is scheduled to be operational by the middle of 2010. It is expected to bring in additional revenue of Rs 150 crore per year to the company initially.
Uttarakhand govt. has announced a reward of Rs. 1 lakh to Maneesh Pandey, new sensation of Indian cricket.in our forum we have recognised the talent of Maneesh last year only when he started playing for U-19 team. Full fledged thread is opened for him. We congratulate him for achieving success in IPL.
Shri Harish Rawat became the minister in Manmohan Singh’s government. Congratulation to him also.
—————-
You get the daily information on some major happening of Uttarakhand through this column. If you don’t want to miss it, you can get the same in your e-mail. Please subscribe our feed by clicking on right side column at our home page. You can leave your comments here or you can take the part in Uttarakhand related discussions at our forum.
For being a member of our forum click here.
That was stimulating . I admire your quality that you put into your work. Please do continue with more similar to this.