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dam-l LS: Letter from Ogden's Kent Burton re: Maheshwar

Below is Ogden's reply to a protest letter written by Dan Silver. The 
NY-based company recently signed a memorandum of intent to take a 49% 
equity share in the Maheshwar Dam.

We urge you to join us on APRIL 25 for Barrage Ogden Day - when we plan to 
overwhelm Ogden with faxes/emails/calls demanding that Ogden withdraw from 
the project. More information will follow. You can also check out www.irn.org.

Ogden Energy Group
3211 Jermantown Road, Suite 300
Fairfax, VA 22030
Tel: 703-246-0600
Fax: 703-246-0808

April 7, 2000

Dear Mr. Silver:

Thank you for sharing your views regarding Ogden Energy Group's involvement 
in the Shree Maheshwar Dam project on the Narmada River in India.

This project will provide the people of the Mandaleshwar region with an 
important new source of clean energy. The 400 megawatts generated at Shree 
Maheshwar will supply the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board with peaking 
power -- electricity that is generated for several hours each day 
throughout most of the year to meet the demand that cannot be handled by 
existing facilities. During monsoon season, when larger facilities are 
taken off-line for maintenance, Shree Maheshwar will help make up the 
energy shortfall and ensure a constant source of power.

In order to provide these benefits to the region, the project requires the 
relocation of families. But estimates used by the Narmada Bachao Andolan 
(NBA) and its United States counterpart, International Rivers Network 
(IRN), are wrong-- by about three times the actual figure. The 2,500 
families, or approximately 12,000 individuals, living in villages on the 
Narmada's banks will be compensated for their homes and land. Their new 
villages will have new roads, schools, medical, sanitation and drinking 
water facilities and households will have electrical connections. In 
addition to those improvements to their quality of life, many residents are 
being located from areas that flood during monsoon season.

Finally, beyond the usual benefits of supplying electricity to any region, 
India's rivers are important sources of irrigation for farming. The power 
provided by dams such as the proposed Maheshwar will help make irrigation 
possible in the Narmada Valley, an area with great agricultural potential.

Our goal is to generate electricity in safe, environmentally acceptable 
ways and we carefully consider all aspects of our projects. This project 
meets all objective environmental and safety criteria and offers 
significant benefits to the people of the region. In fact, these same 
people are voicing their support in increasing numbers and are encouraging 
us to move toward completion as rapidly as possible. We look forward to 
serving them, just as we meet the needs of people in many countries around 
the world.

Thank you, again, for expressing your views on this important issue.

Sincerely,

B. Kent Burton
Senior Vice President
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