25 small Hydel power plants for Bihar

From a long time all of us know that Bihar does not have much power generation capacity. And then many of us would have heard or read about Bihar not getting the coal linkages or the water linkages for generating power through proposed thermal power plants. These thermal plants are good as they will be able to produce hundreds and thousands of Mega Watts of power. However we have been just hearing about them in the last 3-4 years with work only starting on one or two of such plants.

So I am very happy when someone finally spoke of generating power by hydro electric means. After all we get a lot of excess water in some places of Bihar and then we have rivers which can be used for generating Hydro electric power. So the proposal of putting together 25 Hydel power plants which will produce a total capacity of 800MW came as good news to me. Even if the capacity per plant would be small, the chances of getting these power plants built and commissioned faster, are much higher and can happen more quickly as we do not have to depend on coal linkages.

One of such projects is the Dagmara Hydel Power Project over River Kosi which will generate 130 MWs of power. Atleast Kosi will do more than disrupting lives of people if this power plant gets approved and built.

More details can be found in the Times of India article "Bihar proposes to setup 25 Hydel power projects"

Is Nuclear Power an option for Bihar?

A recent news telecast just a couple of days back, that a nuclear power plant with a capacity of 10,000 MW will be setup in Maharashtra, caught my attention. This nuclear plant , will be the largest nuclear power plant globally and will be setup with the help of the Franch company Areva.

This made me wonder: Is Nuclear Power an option for Bihar? Can nuclear power plants be a viable source of electricity for Bihar? Does Bihar have that kind of land and resources required that can be used to build nuclear power plants, even if small?

We have way too much dependancy, as has been seen in the last 5 years or more, on coal for generating electricity. If Nuclear power is a viable option then why not explore it?

With the recent nuclear deal that India signed, a lot of nuclear nations are more than willing to partner with India: afterall it generates a lot of revenue for them. So getting a partner to generate nuclear power should not be a problem... The question is can nuclear power be generated in Bihar keeping not only the technology itself in mind but also the environment , people, etc.

Does anyone know if nuclear power plants are a feasible option for Bihar or has any thoughts around it?