Power couple

Friendship project. That’s what they call it in Bhutan. Born out of a happy union between the governments of India and Bhutan in March ...

Friendship project. That’s what they call it in Bhutan. Born out of a happy union between the governments of India and Bhutan in March 1996, the 1020 MW Tala Hydroelectric Project, is certainly generating goodwill. No one knows it better than Prime Minister Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba who’s gone on record to say that his Ninth Plan depends on it. Or the Indian engineers who fathered it.

R N Khajanchi, Managing Director, and D P Goyal, Director, Technical, still remember the rain that greeted them in Thimphu on February 8, 1997. ‘‘We’d only Rs 25,000 with us, and a tall order to complete the

project in a record time of eight years.’’ So they did the smart thing: they began hiring, both men and machinery. By the time the Indian Government sent them the first installment of Rs 3 crore in April, they’d already begun work on the roads.

Today the project, which will be completed in December 2005, is considered one of the fastest in execution the world over.

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For the locals it’s translated into 100 km of roads, 16 bridges, jobs, a premier school and 20-bed hospital at Gedu, a town 60 km from the border town of Phuentsholing.

The best part, says director, personnel, Phuntso Norbu, is that all this was achieved without hurting the ecology. ‘‘It’s a run-of-the-river project, we’d to relocate only 14-15 households and the aquatic life was unharmed.’’

INTEGRATE and preserve. That’s been the motto of both Indians and Bhutanese working in the Tala Hydroelectric Project Authority (THPA), which is at the moment headed by the PM himself.

Goyal, who was handpicked for Tala from the Nathpa Jhakri project in Himachal, says integration was not a problem because the Bhutanese knew a smattering of Hindi, and he and his men picked up some Dzongkha. Besides, many of the Bhutanese had studied in India—Norbu is a graduate of the Indian School iof Mining, Dhanbad, while Sonam Tshering, Director General of the Department of Trade and Energy which helms THPA, is an alumnus of IIT, Delhi.

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The Indians also took care to follow the Bhutanese traditions. Which is why the children wear the traditional attire—kira for girls and goh for boys to school, and the offices reflect the Bhutanese architectural principles. The HQs building, rises like a castle out of the mist, with its cornices, extended roof, carved windows, and the eight lucky signs painted all over. ‘‘Even our modular structures are in Bhutanese style,’’ says Goyal.

‘‘Investing in power projects in Bhutan is a good decision. The country is peaceful and has no inter-state water or dam issues.’’

Tala is all set to start generation by December 2005, much to the delight of Sonam Tshering. ‘‘Bhutan is a good source of power investment for India, for it’s peaceful, has no inter-state waters or dam issues, and offers electricity at a competitive rate. For us, hydel power holds the key to economic self-reliance.’’ Tala will export 4,865 million units to India every year.

With Bhutan utilising only 1 per cent of its hydel power potential at present, the two countries can look forward to an exciting future. ‘‘We can generate at least 30,000 MW from the three river basins of Wangchu, Punatsangchu and Manas,’’ says Tshering, who’s already employed Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS) to prepare a report on the Punatsangchu basin. ‘‘We hope to start this venture with India before Tala’s completion,’’ he says.

Another friendship project, we assume.