Monitoring China’s biggest hydropower plant in Tibet, says India

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Monitoring China’s biggest hydropower plant in Tibet, says India

October 16, 2015;

ANI, Zee News, 15 October 2015

New Delhi: As China completed the biggest hydropower plant in Tibet, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Vikas Swarup on Thursday said India is monitoring the situation and may convey its concerns to Beijing.

China has constructed Zangmu hydropower facility in Tibet, the largest so far to be built in the region, the company in-charge of building the project said on Tuesday.

The project on the Yarlung Zangbo river, the upstream section of the trans-boundary Brahmaputra, is located around 140 kilometres from Lhasa and cost 1.52 billion dollar, said Gezhouba Group, one of China’s biggest state dam builders, on its website.

Playing down the development, Swarup said China had provided useful hydrological data on the Brahmaputra River to New Delhi.

“China, as you know, has been sharing hydrological data on the Brahmaputra River with us which has been found to be very useful. China has repeatedly assured us that they have no intention of diverting the waters of the river and that any projects that are coming up, including this one, are run of the river projects. So that is where we are and we will continue to monitor the situation and if we feel that our concerns need to convey to Chinese side, we will certainly do so,” said Swarup.

The 2,900-km Brahmaputra flows southeast from Tibet through the Himalayas into Arunachal Pradesh before entering Bangladesh and merging with the lower section of the Ganges, when it empties into the Bay of Bengal.