View: Upper Siang hydropower project critical to counter China's plans

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Yarlung Tsangpo, known as the Brahmaputra in India. There have been reports that China has plans to divert the Yarlung River by way of construction of South-North Diversion Project by constructing 1,000 km canal.
Since people in both Arunachal and Assam are heavily dependent on the Brahmaputra river for their quotidian water needs, the diversion of lean season flows will affect their day to day existence and the flora, fauna and the river ecology of the region.

Large volume of water storage by China at the Great Bend Project could also lead to artificial floods during monsoon in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
The Chinese project will also reduce lean season flows in the river, thus, techno-economic feasibility of the Lower Siang Hydroelectric Project (2,700 MW) in India will be severely affected. With a view to counter the threats from the upper riparian neighbour, construction of Upper Siang Hydroelectric Project (HEP) with large water storage in the reservoir will keep the river alive during the lean season and will also absorb any flood water release after construction of Great Bend project.

Siang Upper Hydroelectric Project is proposed to be located in Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh NHPC and NEEPCO have jointly been assigned the task of construction of this project. On December 30, 2022, NHPC has submitted a pre-feasibility report of the project. Installed capacity of the project would be 11,000 MW.

Reservoir of the dam will have a storage capacity of 9 billion cubic meter (BCM). Estimated cost of the project would be ₹1,13,000 cr ($ 13.13 b). Such large investment in Upper Sian will give a boost to the economy and infrastructure of Arunachal Pradesh and the entire northeast.