China Gives Nod To Building Downstream Dam Projects On Brahmaputra River For First Time

A draft of China's new Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) specifically talks about building hydropower bases on the lower reaches of the Brahmaputra river as among the priority energy projects to be undertaken in the next five years.

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Kritika Bansal

Updated: March 8, 2021, 10:41 AM IST

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https://www.india.com/news/world/china-gives-nod-to-building-downstream-dam-projects-on-brahmaputra-river-for-first-time-4475644/ Copy

Brahmaputra river side (Picture courtesy: Instagram)

New Delhi: China has given its nod for the first downstream dams to be built on the lower reaches of Brahmaputra River or Yarlung Zangbo River (as known in Tibet before it flows into India). A draft of China’s new Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) specifically talks about building hydropower bases on the lower reaches of the Brahmaputra river as among the priority energy projects to be undertaken in the next five years.

According to a report in The Hindu, including the dam projects in the draft plan suggests that Chinese authorities have given the green light to begin tapping the lower reaches of Bramhaputra for the first time. This marks a new chapter in the hydropower exploitation of the river.

The new five-year-plan backing for the projects also suggests that multiple long-pending proposals from Chinese hydropower companies to build dams on the lower reaches including near the India-China border may be given the nod.

The draft outline of the new Five-Year Plan (FYP) for 2025 and “long range objectives through the year 2035”, submitted before the National People’s Congress (NPC) on March 5, will formally be approved before the NPC session ends on Thursday, March 11.

However, the final version of the draft is unlikely to have major changes as the Communist Party-controlled legislature rarely overhauls the proposals sent before it.