The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has cancelled the proposals of 53 small hydro power (SHP) projects across the country.
The project developers had sought financial assistance from the Central government. These projects, with a cumulative capacity of around 440 MW, will not receive any financial support from the government because no progress reports were submitted for these projects applying for central financial assistance (CFA) before 2014.
As many as 134 small hydro developers had applied for CFA before 2014. The government provides 30 percent of actual cost--restricted within an upper ceiling as financial support to small hydro developers. Hydro projects upto 25 MW station capacities are categorised under SHP.
The programme is essentially driven by private investment. The current installed hydro capacity is 4,539 MW. The identified potential for power generation from small hydro projects across the country is around 21,135 MW.