Policy Level Changes Initiated by Government of India for Development of Hydro Power Sector in India

Hydropower can play a crucial role in India’s sustainable development and energy security as it meets the criteria of sustainability, availability and reliability. It is an environmentally benign, non-polluting source of power and is most suitable for balancing renewables. Despite so many benefits from hydropower and huge potential in country, the share of hydropower is not at satisfactory level in overall installed capacity of the country. The Government has accorded high priority to the development of the hydro potential and has time to time taken a number of policy initiatives to address the issues impeding the hydropower development.

This paper mainly focuses on the recent policy level initiatives taken by the Government of India to accelerate the development of Hydro Power Sector in India. Further, special focus has been given to the measures to promote hydropower sector through budgetary support for Flood Moderation component and Enabling Infrastructure i.e. roads/bridges.