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dam-l LS: Chinese model of power generation



Chinese model of power generation

The Hindu
Tuesday, February 01, 2000
By M. Malleswara Rao

HYDERABAD, JAN. 31. The Chinese love for huge  structures seems to know no
bounds. The Great Wall which is the only man-made structure  visible,
though dimly, from the moon for its breathtaking length - 6,700 km, twice
the distance  between Kanyakumari and Kashmir is one. Continuing the
tradition is the Three Gorges  Project to tame the Yangtze, said to be the
most violent of rivers in the world, and impound a  massive quantum of
1,440 tmc ft. of water to generate 22,400 MW of power, both at a single
point, and  irrigate millions of hectares.

Irrigation and electricity engineers in India are  swayed by the technology
being used to harness ``the ocean-like river'' for such a stupendous gain
and have been visiting the project under construction. Many of them
describe the project as  a role-model which can be adopted as an ultimate
answer to similar rivers in the country  such as the Brahmaputra and the
Godavari.

A team comprising 30 engineers drawn from different  States and led by Mr.
C.V.J. Varma, Secretary-General, World Power Utilities (WPU),  spent four
days in the Yangtze region recently, attending a WPU-organised
international conference  on ``Green Power''. The team returned with copies
of the project report of the TGP which the  Chinese Government allowed,
lifting its age-long iron-curtain for the first time.

Mr. Bh. Satyanarayana Murthy, Mr. P. Venkateswara  Rao, and Mr. G.
Adiseshu, Director, Chief Engineer and Executive Engineer, respectively of
the Andhra Pradesh Generation Corporation dealing with hydel stations, who
were on the team,  strongly argue for applying the Yangtze model to the
local situations, especially the Godavari  which reports yearly floods
while its flow-area, Telangana, perennially suffers from drought.

Extending the application to the Brahmaputra, Mr.  T. Hanumantha Rao, a
U.N. consultant on irrigation, says the river, originating from
Manasarovar, is longer than the Ganges with which it joins, and brings down
an enormous quantum of water  helped by the monsoon and the melting ice of
the Himalayas, causing annual floods in the north-east.

Mr. Hanumantha Rao and Mr. Venkateswara Rao feel  30,000 MW of hydel power
can be generated at a single point as in the case of the  Yangtze with the
flood waters of Brahmaputra. The problem is that any impounding the river
in the  north-east causes submergence in Tibet, but this can be overcome by
an agreement with China for  sharing the cost and the benefit at certain
percentage.

In fact, the country signed such agreements with  Nepal and Bhutan for
power generation. As far as the Godavari is concerned, the underutilisation
of the ``assured'' waters out of the entitlement under the award by Andhra
Pradesh alone is 682 tmc  ft. The flood (surplus) water wasted into the sea
has been estimated at over 2,500 tmc ft.

They seek the immediate execution of at least one  big project of
Yangtze-type like Ichampalli on the Godavari, contending that ``cost can
pose no  problem'' if the Central Government floats a separate organisation
on the lines of the one  formed for the Yangtze project, treating it as a
national project with approval from Madhya Pradesh where  submergence is to
take place.

To render the project economically viable, they  suggest adding of
navigation component to Ichampalli, stretching right up to the sea - a
distance of about 600 km. This will improve industries on either side of
the river and also facilitate  easy movement of minerals with which the
region is well endowed.

The navigation will give the project an added  benefit of ``shiplock and
shiplift'' berths by the side of the dam through which additional power
generation can be made. The berths envisaged under the Chinese dam will
create artificial waterfalls  as and when the ships are to be lifted or
lowered in tune with the water levels on the upstream and  downstream
sides. The berths under the Yangtze's navigation facility extending for 600
km up to  Shanghai, are capable of handling 50 million tonnes of cargo
one-way annually.

The team was awestruck by the sheer size of the  Yangtze. The project
consists of a dam which will be a little bigger than the Nagarjunasagar,
but  will create the world's largest man-made reservoir spread over 660 km
as compared to 189-km  waterspread under the Nagarjunasagar. It will store
1,440 tmc ft, nearly four times that of the  Nagarjunasagar at its crest
level.

The Yangtze project will have the biggest hydel  station in the world at a
single point with an installed capacity of 22,400 MW - twice the total
hydel capacity of all the southern Indian States put together. Out of this,
18,200 MW is to be  contributed by a record number of 26 Francis-type
turbines and 4,200 MW from the tunnel station.

Another striking aspect of the project is the cost  which was estimated at
Rs. 1 lakh crores in 1994 and this is expected to go up further due to
inflation. Of this, 45 per cent is being apportioned for rehabilitation and
resettlement of the displaced  persons under which ``new towns and villages
are being built''.

Eye-soothing landscapes with orderly growth of  vegetation and townships
have been developed around the dam. A super highway with an eight-lane
provision is being laid to Shangai.

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