Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project:
The NHPC’s plan to start generating electricity from the 2000 megawatt Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project (LSHP) has triggered downstream impact worries in Assam.
- It is a 2000 MW run-of-the-river hydro project being constructed on the Subansiri River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra.
- It is located on the borders of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
- The project is being developed by the state-run National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC).
- It consists of a concrete gravity dam, which will be 116 m high from the riverbed level and 130 m from the foundation.
- The length of the dam will be 284 m. The gross storage capacity of the reservoir will be 1.37 km3.
- The powerhouse will be equipped with eight 250 MW Francis turbines located on the surface on the left bank of the river.
- It will also have eight horseshoe-shaped headrace tunnels (diameter 9.5m and length varying from 608m to 1,168m), eight horseshoe-shaped surge tunnels (diameter 9.5m and length varying from 400m to 485m), and eight circular penstocks (diameter varying between 400m and 485m and length between 7m and 9.5m).
- A tailrace channel (35m-long and 206m-wide) will take the water discharged by the turbines back to the river.
