Paid Rs 450 cr to Himachal, Centre tells Supreme Court

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 23

The Centre today told the Supreme Court that it paid Rs 450 crore to Himachal Pradesh as reimbursement for the land acquired for the Rs 5,242 crore Renuka Dam.

Appearing before a three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said the state government’s appeal had become irrelevant as the Centre had reimbursed the compensation amount and sought disposal of the case.

The dam is primarily meant for providing drinking to Delhi, but the pipeline could also be utilised for areas of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh falling in the National Capital Region (NCR) such as Faridabad and Noida. The project will come up across Giri river, a tributary of Yamuna, in Sirmour district. Himachal also has a stake in the project as it will get 40 MW of electricity from the project free of cost.

Himachal has approached the SC as it is not in a position to pay further compensation to comply with an order passed by the state high court on November 20, 2014.