(FE)
The ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) has cancelled the financial assistance proposals of 22 small hydro power (SHP) projects across the country. These projects, with a cumulative capacity of around 175 MW, would not receive any financial support from the government “as the project developers did not submit the desired documents pertaining to their projects despite repeated requests from this ministry”, the MNRE said.
A senior MNRE official told FE that “apart from ensuring we make accurate provisions in our budget for such subsidy disbursal, the government wants to caution the developer community that compliance norms cannot be taken lightly”. Earlier in May, the MNRE had cancelled the 53 SHP proposals because they had not submitted any progress report after applying for central financial assistance (CFA) before 2014.
As many as 134 small hydro developers had applied for CFA before 2014, of which grant approvals for around 100 plants have been cancelled. The government provides 30% of actual cost—restricted within an upper ceiling of Rs. 5 crore—as financial support to small hydro developers. Hydro projects up to 25 MW station capacities are categorised under SHP.
