Hydropower Development in Teesta River Basin & Lessons for Regional Cooperation

If energy cooperation is to take centre stage for the South-Asian regional cooperation agenda, it is hydropower that can be of immense importance. Its huge potential especially in the upstream riparian countries of the subcontinent namely, Afghanistan in the Northwest and Bhutan and Nepal in the North East has been well recognised. These are landlocked countries and with few options available for rapid economic growth. Developing their hydropower potential and feeding it to the neighbouring energy starved subcontinent offers an opportunity to alter and rapidly develop their economies. . India too is endowed with some of these upstream riparian areas which comprise of its north eastern states and the state of Himachal Pradesh.