North East Regional Power Committee urges feasibility study of Sikkim’s inclusion in the grid.

The North Eastern regional power committee recommends sub-committee to study feasibility of tagging Sikkim with NER region in terms of power. A sub-committee thus constituted will study the feasibility of tagging Sikkim.

It was decided at the 29th North-Eastern Regional Power Committee Meeting, which was held under the Chairmanship of Meghalaya Power Minister A.T. Mondal at Guwahati on 18^th. July, 2025. The meeting was attended by Advisor Government of Arunachala Pradesh, Power Ministers of Mizoram and Tripura, Managing Director North East Transmission Company (NETC) Member Secretary NERCP, delegates of North Eastern States, and Officials of PGCIL, NTPC, Grid India and NEEPCO.

During the meeting the Meghalaya Power Ministers raised several issues which have benefits not only for the state but for the entire North Eastern Region. Mondal contested that Sikkim which as of now for the purpose of power-related schemes is tagged under Eastern Region, should be tagged with North Eastern Region and included in North Eastern Regional Power Committee.

“This will result in allocation of power projects coming up in Sikkim to North-Eastern States“, he advocated, adding that since Sikkim has a similar geography as most of the north-eastern state hence, most of the schemes under transmission and distribution implemented in Sikkim are similar to that of other states in the region.

The Meghalaya Power minister further raised the issue of the funding constraints for the transmission projects planned and approved by CEA for the state of Meghalaya by introducing the scheme similar to NERPSIP so that the financial burden of any transmission infrastructure upgradations in not passed on to end consumers of power. In principle this was accepted by Central Electricity Authority (CEA). However, they asked DPR from other states.

Mondal also strongly objected that the minimum requirement of manpower in SLDC notified by the Ministry of Power should not been linked to funding under PSDF. He also urged the member states to submit a resolution to MoP for reviewing the minimum requirement manpower to be posted under Emerging SLDCs’. The Meghalaya’s power minister also raised the issue pertaining to the reserve requirements mandated by NLDC which, if implemented, would have a severe impact on the power scenario in Meghalaya as the capacity equivalent to the reserve requirement cannot be used for meeting the state demand.

Based on his objection, the Member Secretary accepted the demand to take up the matter with MoP and CERC for relaxation of the reserve requirements.

Team Maverick