Govt accepts White Paper recommendation, takes in ATPIL as strategic partner for SPDC

MEGA PROJECTS PLACED UNDER POWER DEPTT WATCH, SPDC TO DEVELOP MINI HYDEL PROJECTS
GANGTOK, 08 April: The State government has entered into a strategic joint-venture with ATPIL to run the Sikkim Power Development Corporation [SPDC]. The SPDC is now being operated by ATPIL, the company which has also floated Teesta Urja which is developing the 1,200 MW Teesta Stage-III hydroelectric project at Chungthang, North Sikkim. The State government continues to hold majority equity in the Corporation as it has offloaded 49% equity to ATPIL which was selected from among the best performing private hydel developers in the State, it is informed.
This decision was taken by the State government in light of the poor performance of the SPDC over the past years [among other factors] and in order to infuse some professionalism and expertise into the corporation. For the selection of the strategic joint venture partner, tenders were floated on the basis of which ATPIL was selected to take 49% of the stake in SPDC, it is further learnt.
The managing director, SPDC, in charge of the affairs of the SPDC is from ATPIL and the day to day operations are under ATPIL now. However, in a major policy shift, all major power development projects which were so long under the SPDC have been transferred to the Power Department. The SPDC is now in charge of developing only mini HEPs in the State. A few of these are already under development and all are under 5 MW capacity. Incidentally, the White Paper issued by the State government a few years ago on hydel power development in the State is also informed to have recommended the forging of a strategic joint venture with a private developer for SPDC.
It has been candidly stated that the SPDC, under the Power Department since its establishment in the year 1998, could not function properly due to various shortcomings. Earlier, the corporation was undertaking the big power projects in the State many of which it could not implement in time. Due to this, some agreements entered into with some companies had to be cancelled, including one with ATPIL.
The SPDC itself was established for the development of hydel projects by availing loans from financial institutions, however, several projects could not be completed due to constraints which included organizational capacity limitations, funds and expertise. So, when it could not operate to the expectations of the government and started incurring losses, it was decided to offload 49% equity to a private developer.
Today, as mentioned, the SPDC is engaged in the development of a few mini HEPs in the state while all the big HEPs have been transferred to the Power Department. The strategic joint venture with ATPIL was entered into with by the state government last year.
The government has also made it clear that the SPDC shall have no rights under any Implementation Agreement with any private Independent Power Producer (IPP) entered for development of hydro power projects in the State by such private IPPs and all land acquired by SPDC will now be under the State government.