United Nations

The activity is a 330 MW ‘run of the river’ hydropower project in Uttarakhand, it is located on Alaknanda River, a major tributary of the Ganga River, a perennial river in Uttarakhand, India. The project site is 110 km from Rishikesh railhead, along Rishikesh - Badrinath highway. A weir has been proposed on Alaknanda River at Shrinagar, about 26 km downstream of Rudraprayag for generation of hydroelectricity.

Social well-being:

• The operation of this plant creates new employment opportunities for the region.
• It has increased income security of vulnerable sections of the rural communities in the vicinity of the project site through redistribution of benefits on account of the new direct and indirect employment opportunities associated with the project.
• The project indirectly helped in infrastructure development in the neighbouring villages like better roads and telecommunications.

Environmental well-being:

• The electricity generated by the project is supplied to NEWNE grid, which otherwise would have been generated by fossil fuel fired power plants in the grid.
• The project helped in reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants (especially NOx and SO2 and prevented the depletion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, natural gas which at present are predominantly used for power generation.
• The project being run-of-the-river power project has a minimal environmental impact than a reservoir based hydro power plant.

Economic well being:

• The construction of the hydro power plant created employment opportunities and opportunities for the allied sectors that supply services to the local population. This will eventually raise the economic standards of the people residing near the project activity.
• The stakeholders in the vicinity of the project site have tourism as a major income source and the project activity of this scale is expected to boost that further

For more information on this project, please click here and for more information on its social benefits, please click here.