(Feature Image: Water stream flowing though Parbati -II hydro project tunnel on Nov. 17, 2023. Image Source: Divya Himachal)
The controversial Parbati-II hydro power project has suffered another major setback after massive water leakages was witnessed from the drainage gallery of its power house in the evening on Nov 17, 2023. The sudden gushing down of water from the tunnel caused panic among project staff and local people. About two dozen workers had to run away to save their lives. The water leakages resembled a flowing river as seen in this video report by Divya Himachal.
There is no official report yet by NHPC explaining the reasons behind the incident. However, the project officials, as reported in media termed it a technical snag during operations and ruled out any threat to the power house and local people as reported in The Tribune. Quoting Ranjeet Singh, General Manager of Powe House the report mentioned that there were leakages in the manhole gasket of the bottom ADIT leading to the inspection windows and drainage galleries of the penstock. He further stated that the area was being de-watered and it would take about two days to assess the fault.
As per Punjab Kesari the leakages started from pressure shaft tunnel of the power house and the tunnel was closed down after the leakages. The report further stated that the project management was considering the incident as a minor fault in pen stock valve. Referring to Nirmal Singh, Executive Director of the project, the Divya Himachal mentions that the leakage was from the bottom of the power house tunnel. Another media report states that the leakages due to a hole in penstock.
One unit of the project was generating power on trial basis by diverting water from Jeeva and Panch nullahs. The water diversion was stopped from these nullahs after the incident and power generation was stopped.
The 800 MW project is being developed by NHPC Ltd (formerly National Hydroelectric Power Corporation) at Siund in the Sainj valley of Kullu district of HP. The project proposes to divert Parbati river water from a concrete gravity dam near Pulga village through a 32-km-long tunnel to a powerhouse near Sainj river at Siund and has 4 pelton turbine of 200 Mw capacity each.
The project had faced several serious disasters and problems including repeated leakages, frequent landslides, tunnel boring machine getting stuck for year and fire incidents affecting the project for the past 23 years since the construction started. The project completion has already been delayed by over 15 years.
The cutting of hills has caused many landslide incidents during the construction of the powerhouse. Initially, the project was to be completed by 2009 but the latest deadline has been extended to December 2024. As per the experts say that the delay in the project has caused a loss of more than Rs 10,000 crore to the country. The estimated cost of the project has also reportedly increased from about Rs. 1300 crore to over Rs. 8000 crore in these years.
Recently NHPC had claimed that it had successfully completed 9.05-km tunnel between Barshaini and Siund villages after 23 years. The tunnel is part of a 6 metre wide and 32-km-long head race tunnel (HRT) of the project. The construction work was not completed due to leakages in the tunnel, contractual hassles and alleged cement and steel scams in the project.
However, this fresh incident has raised further concerns over safety and quality of the project construction. The incident has also reignited fears and threats of untoward disaster among the residents of Khadoa, Jeeva and Bhaiwal villages under Rera panchayats near the powerhouse. The affected villagers have been asking the NHPC to take proper safety measures and precautions but feel disappointed.
Amar Ujala briefs on some of the past incidents at the project site including a huge water leakage incident from hills at Bhaiwal village in 2022 and subsequent cracks damaging several homes. The report also states that residents of Jeeva village have been evacuated several times due to the emergence of cracks in the hills during the construction of the powerhouse.
In May 2021, about 4 workers had died following collapse of a diversion tunnel of the project, see details in a SANDRP blog here.
In July 2020, a fire incident in the project power house had caused significant financial losses to NHPC. In 2019 there were leakages from the project tunnel along with landslide incident causing threats to the Jeeva villagers.
SANDRP has written about how the negligence by NHPC caused leakages in project HRT for about a week in April 2017 which in turn resulted in soil erosion, crop damages and landslide threats to nearby villages. This Himachal Watcher also reported the incident. As per Dainik Bhaskar, the leakage was caused by the penstock of the project exposing a successful trial claim of NHPC officials.
Also, this detailed July 2007 case study by Lok Vigyan Kendra and Kalpavriksh highlights major lapses in the monitoring during construction of the project adversely affecting the local environment, river and people in the area. The report also mentions about the December 2006 incident when the tunnel boring machine (TBM) was stuck in Adit 2 tunnel of the project.
The local people have blamed the NHPC’s 520 Mw Parbati III HEP dam for aggravating flood situation and destruction in Sainj valley in July 2023. The details of the flood damages there due to questionable dam operations of the project can be seen in this blog by SANDRP.
The latest incident in long series of disasters that has affected NHPC’s this and other projects (e.g. Lower Subansiri disaster in Oct 2023 and Sikkim GLOF disaster affecting NHPC’s Teesta V and under construction Teesta VI projects) have once again underlined how hydro projects in Himalayas are force multipliers in already disaster vulnerable Himalayas, besides being socially, environmentally and economically unviable.
Bhim Singh Rawat (bhim.sandrp@gmail.com)
SANDRP 