Tipaimukh Site

Heavy rain delays Dhaka team's visit

Pallab Bhattacharya, New Delhi

The visiting 10-member team of Bangladeshi parliamentarians yesterday could not visit the site of proposed Tipaimukh Hydropower Project in the Indian state of Manipur due to heavy rain.

The delegation led by veteran AL lawmaker Abdur Razzak took off in a helicopter from Guwahati in Assam and headed to the project site but could not proceed further as heavy downpour forced it to return.

However, the delegation, which was scheduled to return to Delhi yesterday evening, stayed back in Guwahati and would make another attempt to visit the site today, Bangladeshi officials here said.

The delegation's attempt to visit the Tipaimukh site came a day after Indian Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and officials assured the delegation that no irrigation project would come up downstream of the Tipaimukh and there would be no diversion of water from the river Barak on which the 1,500MW power project, entailing an investment of Rs 9,000 crore, is being developed.

Since its arrival in Delhi on July 29, the delegation had held talks with officials of Indian power, water resources and external affairs ministries besides Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Power Minister Shinde.

Both Krishna and Shinde assured the delegation that India would not do anything about the Tipaumukh project, which would harm Bangladesh's interest.

The Tipaimukh project is being developed in impoverished Churachandpur district of Monipur by government owned national hydropower corporation in joint venture with Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam and Manipur Government.