At the Source of Conventional Energy

After our visit to the picturesque Rohtang pass in the morning, we were scheduled to see the "Allain-Duhangan undrground hydro-electric power plant" in the afternoon, during the summer trek to Himachal Pradesh this year.

Just a few kilometres from the Manali market we searched the gates of ADHPL in no time at the entrance we collected our permission pass and rode in our vehicles and entered a tunnel leading a long way underground to see the actual working of the hydroelectric power station in full action. The scene in the tunnel represented a picture of a massive feat of engineering too extended to behold all at once. The tunnel seemed like a hemisphere full of sparkling light bulbs.
The tunnel led us to a control room where a guide explained to us the working of the plant the Allain-Duhahangan power plant utilises water from the Hamtal and Pataori Himalayan streams, which form the Allain river, and from the Chander Tal glacier fed Duhangan river and thus receives the name from the two rivers .A visitor cant fail to be overwhelmed by the staggering proportion of the project, the mind blowing architecture and the air of mystery. Unfortunately photography was prohibited.

The ADHPL is the first private run of river hydroelectric power project in the country. It combines the perennial flow of the Allain and Duhangan rivers, through two underground tunnels to feed a single power house near Prini village in the kullu district .out of total power generated ADHPL provides the state of Himachal Pradesh with 15 % of the power as royalty and the remaining is sold to various north Indian states.

The tour gave us an insight into the economic advantage of the dam but to a lesser extent into the legitimate environmental concerns of the project on the negative side large hydro projects flood a lot of land, are responsible for the displacement of wildlife and people these projects are responsible for killing a large number of fishes they alter the natural flow of rivers and cause problem with the migrating fish. But the pros of renewable energy generated from hydroelectric projects outweighs the cons as hydroelectric power plants do not burn fossil fuel they do not produce carbon dioxide or pollutants .Hydroelectricity also eliminates the hazards of coal mining and the indirect effect of coal burning .it does not create any nuclear waste and does have dangers associated with nuclear leaks, thus making hydroelectric power plants safe for the environment these projects can help decarbonising and prevent catastrophic and irreversible effects of global warming there are both positive and negative effects of this source but the environmental done by the generation of nuclear energy is colossal compared to non conventional source of energy. The souring crude oil prices and the global energy consumption trends make hydroelectricity power projects like ADHPL ecologically and environmentally sustainable.