Central govt’s mega project earns opposition from farmers

TIRUPUR: The Power Grid Corporation of India's mega project of linking Tamil Nadu's Pugalur and Chhattisgarh's Raigarh has earned strong opposition from farmers in western districts of the state. The farmers raise concern about high-voltage transmission lines affecting their livelihoods.
The farmers have urged the central and state governments to execute the project by laying underground cables instead of high-voltage transmission towers.

The Rs 5,700-crore-project will include the whopping 1,830-km link to connect southern states with the northern states, and the link will be able to transmit 6,000mw of electricity. The link will cross 15 districts in Tamil Nadu.

In case of Tirupur district, an electrical station is being established at Pugalur near Kundadam. Five mega transmission lines from Arasur and Edaryarpalayam and Maivadi of Coimbatore district, Thrissur of Kerala and Tiruvannamalai were likely to reach Ichipatti. Still more transmission lines from various other places may reach the substation, said N S P Vetri, working president of Katchi Saarbatra Tamizhaga Vivasaigal Sangam.

The transmission towers will be established across thousands of agricultural lands in the state, for which small places needed for building towers would be acquired. If so, there would be numerous restrictions to the farmers in utilising or cultivating in their own lands located beneath the transmission lines. So, the lands will lose their market value, said Vetri.

"It would affect the micro farmers the most if transmission lines bisect their lands. The authorities have said they will provide compensation of around Rs 20,000 per site where the transmission tower would be erected, and also the same amount if a coconut tree should be chopped for the project. But it would not weaken the farmers, who were already in grief," said Gopal of Parambikulam Aliyar Project Irrigation Scheme Welfare Association.

While the states like Kerala has planned to provide transmission lines by laying underground cables, why the same should not be followed in this project. They can lay the underground cables along highway roads. The underground cables may be costlier than the upper transmission lines but it would save the farmers, said Vetri.