Itanagar, Apr 29: On the directives of NITI Aayog, one day brainstorming session was held on April 26 last at CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad to constitute a “Consortium of Geothermal Energy” towards harnessing 10 MW Geothermal energy by 2030 under the Chairmanship of Union Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Dr M. Ravichandran. 
While addressing the participants, Dr Ravichandran stressed on developing a resource potential map for geothermal energy in order to enhance survey activities for geothermal exploration and initiating a pilot project to showcase the effectiveness of geothermal potential in the country. 
He said there is a need to evaluate technical feasibility and economic viability for the proposed work and called for robust collaborations among various entities, including national research institutes, State organisations, industries, and other relevant stakeholders.
Oil India Chairman and Managing Director Ranjith Rath advocated to revive the existing deep bore wells originally drilled for hydrocarbon exploration to harness geothermal energy. He also informed that Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies and Oil India Limited would carry out research studies on the abundant deep and shallow oil wells in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam after the meeting of Joint Working Group on geothermal energy.
ONGC-Energy Centre, Director General Ravi shared insights into recent endeavors in Ladakh and explained about the ambitious plans to construct deep bores of 1 MW energy-generating wells.
Participating in the discussion, Director, Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies, Tana Tage presented detail action plans and work progress made towards harnessing geothermal energy from Arunachal Himalayas. “Arunachal Pradesh offers huge potential for tapping geothermal energy as more than 100 hot springs sites have been identified during recce survey conducted jointly by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Oslo and Geotropy, Iceland,” he informed adding that Geo chemical tests were successfully done at IIT, Roorkee and being crossed verified by the CIL Central University of Punjab, Bhatinda. 
Oil India Limited and National Geophysical Research Institute will jointly facilitate the MT survey and help mobilizing drill-rig for drilling operation in some of the identified potential sites in Arunachal Pradesh. 
CSIR-NGRI Director Prakash Kumar, chief scientist Abhay Ram Bansal, convenor BPK Patro, co-convenor Labani Ray, Dr Sudipta Tapan Sinha, Senior General Manger, Reliance and scientists from various institutions participated in the session.a

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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