A panel of experts in the Union environment ministry has approved a proposal to rebuild a 1,200mw dam on the Teesta in Sikkim after the project was washed away by a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in October 2023.
The Sikkim unit of the BJP said the “hasty clearance” given by the expert appraisal committee (EAC) raised serious concerns about the safety of the people in the
Himalayan state.
The 1,200mw Teesta III hydel dam at Chungthang in Mangan district, which was Sikkim’s biggest such project, was destroyed in less than an hour by the GLOF on the South Lhonak Lake on the intervening night of October 3 and 4 in 2023.
Over 100 people were killed or are still missing and more than 1,800 houses were fully damaged in the disaster. More than 90,000 people were affected by the disaster.
While Sikkim and parts of the Darjeeling hills are limping back after the GLOF, the clearance by the EAC on river valley and hydroelectric projects has sent shockwaves in the region.
“The approval not only disregards Sikkim’s fragile Himalayan ecosystem but also raises serious concerns about the safety of its people, given the catastrophic events of October 2023,” said a statement issued by Passang Sherpa, the spokesman for the Sikkim BJP, and Niren Bhandari, the media in-charge of the party in the state.
A recent study by the Sikkim government showed that 16 of 320 lakes in the state were vulnerable. The government is conducting a “comprehensive test” on the 16 vulnerable lakes in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
“These lakes are big, with some carrying around 100 million cubic metres of water. Given the distance between these lakes and the nearest habitats is about 3km, any GLOF can be devastating, as was seen recently,” a source in the Sikkim government said.
Those opposed to the project have alleged that the proposal for the new concrete gravity dam has come without ensuring the completion of critical studies, including a revised Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) assessment, as required by the Central Water Commission (CWC).
According to sources in Delhi, the approval has come for building the concrete gravity dam in the place of the earlier concrete rock-filled dam.
A concrete gravity dam is made entirely out of concrete and is generally considered stronger than a concrete rockfill dam, but is more expensive to construct. A concrete rockfill dam has a core of concrete that is surrounded by rockfill material.
“While the proposed dam design claims to enhance spillway capacity from 7,000 cumec to 19,946 cumec, independent experts and stakeholders have highlighted the absence of fresh, credible data to validate these claims. The EAC itself acknowledged the risks posed by upstream glacial lakes but failed to act decisively by insisting on updated environmental and hydrological assessments,” read the BJP statement.
That a fresh public hearing hadn’t been held before the approval was granted was a “blatant oversight” and was “unacceptable,” said the party.
The BJP leaders have demanded that the EAC revoke its approval until all pending technical studies, including revised PMF assessments, are completed and independently reviewed.
Demands have also been raised for a fresh environmental impact assessment and a public hearing.
“There has to be a strong protest against the project even from downstream areas in Bengal as casualties there are often ignored in such disasters,” said an environmentalist.
The 1,200mw dam in Sikkim had been completed in 2017 at an estimated cost of ₹13,965.
