Buoyed by the success of Meenvallom that made it the first local body in the country to own a mini-hydroelectric project, the Palakkad district panchayat is now taking up three mini and one micro-hydel projects. Construction of all the four projects will begin next month, marking the first anniversary of Meenvallom.
Started as an initiative involving resource mobilisation from the general public, the Meenvallom project, located near Karimba here, has reaped a profit of Rs.2.5 crore in the 11 months since its implementation.
Panchayat president T.A. Kandamuthan told The Hindu that one of the projects would come up near the Chindillam waterfalls at Palakuzhy, near Kizhakkanchery, and it would have a capacity to generate 1 MW of power. From the annual Plan, Rs.4 crore had been allotted to generate 3.78 million units annually from there. The district panchayat bought seven 7 acres of private land for the project and secured 0.3 hectares of forest land.
The second project would come up at Koodam, near Agali, in Attappady with an estimated generation capacity of 4.5 MW. The third would be at Chempukatti near Kottopadam in Mannarkkad where the power generation would be 6.5 MW.
He said the Meenvallom project could generate 57,60,380 units of power and the total revenue collected so far was Rs.2.81 crore. A micro-hydroelectric project would be set up there to utilise the tailrace water to generate 8.4 million units of power. The State government’s Energy Management Centre is now preparing a report on the micro-hydro project.
Tourism prospects
Tapping the Meenvallom waterfalls at Karimba in the Bharathapuzha river basin, the Meenvallom project incurred bare minimum operational cost and hence the panchayat considers Rs.2.5 crore out of the Rs.2.8-crore revenue as profit. The power generated here is being sold to the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) at Rs.4.80 a unit. The panchayat also plans to develop tourism in Meenvallom by introducing boating, trekking, wildlife watching, etc. apart from offering facilities to watch the picturesque waterfalls.
“When we took up the idea of power generation, experts on local self-government lampooned us. Now our project is winning world wide attention and experts from many foreign countries are visiting Meenvallom to study the project. It is our humble model to solve energy deficiency,” said Mr. Kandamuthan.
Meenvallom, launched 11 months ago, reaps profit
New projects to mark Meenvallom’s anniversary
