Joint Declaration of Intent by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh and RusHydro

New Delhi, December 11, 2014

Joint Declaration of Intent by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh and RusHydro on December 11, 2014

A new chapter in the development story of Arunachal Pradesh unfolded today with the signing of Joint Cooperation Declaration between the Government of Arunachal Pradesh and RusHydro International, an international Hydropower company partly owned by the Russian Government on the sidelines of the Russian President’s visit to New Delhi.

RusHydro is one of Russia’s largest power generating companies with 38.2 GW installed electricity generation capacity distributed over 70 renewable energy source facilities.

The Joint Cooperation Declaration culminated after persistent efforts of Chief Minister Nabam Tuki to streamline the course of hydropower development in the State. The Joint Declaration was signed in the presence of Chief Minister by Secretary Planning Sonam Chombay representing the State Government and Evelyn Dod, Chairman of RusHydro International at a meeting here this evening. The representatives of RusHydro are part of a business delegation led by Putin to explore business and trade ties with India.

The Joint Cooperation Declaration aims to create a mechanism for possible collaboration on Hydropower education projects in Arunachal Pradesh under a Public Private Partnership Model (PPP). Taking into account the international experience of RusHydro in the field of hydropower and other renewable energy sources, engineering, construction and operation, the Company had expressed willingness to take part in activities to develop educational services in the state.

Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, who witnessed the proceedings, in his brief address termed it as a significant development in meeting human resources needed for the hydro-projects coming up in the state. He observed that as RusHydro has expertise and experience in providing modular education for developing technical manpower with its tie-ups with professional and reputed educational institutions, their cooperation would immensely benefit the youths of Arunachal Pradesh.

Incidentally, the Tehri Dam, one of the safest dams in the world, which Tuki had visited a year ago, has been designed by RusHydro. While lauding the expertise of the company, he suggested that similar projects of designing can be offered to it in near future.

Tuki also emphasized upon the company officials to interact more with the local populace to clear misconceptions and apprehensions over hydro projects.

“There are several genuine concerns of the local people, which can be explained and clarified only by experts like RusHydro,” he pointed.

Tuki welcomed the company to work in Arunachal Pradesh and asserted that Russia has had a long and cordial relations with India since the days of Gandhiji.

The signing of the Declaration signifies a mutual interest of the State Government and Russia's leading hydro-electric power company in development of joint education programs and activities, which will enable sharing of knowledge and joint use of best practices in project development, construction and management of hydraulic facilities.

RusHydro International AG through RusHydro International India Private Limited, a joint venture registered in India, will pursue the opportunity of setting up education programs with clear long term objectives to set up the cooperation roadmap in the field of vocational and higher education under the auspices of RusHydro and India's leading state hydro power companies to train hydro power plants specialists and students.

Roman Zorabyants, CEO of International Affairs, RusHydro gave a presentation on the activities of the company in Russia and other places while Novikova Varvara, External Affairs Specialist, briefed about the institutional mechanism to implement the training in view of the tie ups they have with various Russian universities committed to developing professional manpower.

Chief Secretary Ramesh Negi gave a detail on the overall hydropower scenario of the state. Other senior officials of RusHydro including directors of India operations were also present.

Geetartha Darshan Barua,
Additional Private Secretary to Chief Minister,
Government of Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Bhavan, New Delhi.