Few days back, one of my Blog’s readers anonymously forwarded to me the following video clip that firmly validates what I have always known - that it was never in the scheme of things of the Project Authorities that the PHP-I should ever see the light of day.
The person who produced the above video clip says that he worked on the project from day one the construction of the PHP-I began – in 2008. In other words, you are hearing this from the horse’s mouth – a Bhutanese employee who was bodily present at both the work sites – the right bank and the left bank of the dam site.
This person makes the following points:
The project authorities began the construction work by drilling two test drills on the left bank of the dam site – to determine the earth formation and stability of the mountain side. He says the test results were POSITIVE!!!
Next, they began drilling the same number of test drills on the right bank of the dam site … no doubt because they also had to establish the stability of the right bank for the purpose for which it would be used.
But even after drilling to a depth of 180 meters, they failed to hit hard rock. The narrator goes on to say that all that they encountered was loose earth and sporadic lumps of boulder. In fact, according to him, they had to reinforce the mountain face by ramming metal rods and injecting cement mortar into the mountain side – to prevent it from sliding down while they were prospecting below for hard rock. He goes on to say that what we are seeing today (the mountain face of the right bank of the dam site) is not the mountain’s natural formation - but the cement and mortar cladding they dressed it with – as a stabilization measure - to prevent sliding.
The narrator goes on to say that finally, during April of 2009, they decided to terminate further drilling and abandon the investigations – obviously the Project Authorities came to the conclusion that they were unlikely to ever find any solid/hard rock formation at the location!
This means the Project Authorities became aware – as far back as 2009 – that the location was/is NOT SUITABLE FOR BUILDING A DAM that would be required to store water mass weighing few trillion tons.
This then begs the question: If it was proven that the geology of the area was not suitable for dam construction, what was/is the reason why the PHP Authorities adamantly continued working on the project to this day – 18 years after the dam site was conclusively determined to be unsuitable for the purpose? What exactly was it that justified the Project Authorities to continue to crank up the project cost to close to 500% of the original estimate – even while they knew very well that the dam can never ever be built at the same location?
The PHP-I Project people are literate people - they would know that the Great Himalayas began forming some 25-30 million years back … So, if the hills and mountains in the project areas did not harden to their desired temper in that many million years, they know that there is not a rat’s ass of a chance that hard rocks would begin to form in 18 years.
It is a huge mystery!
What exactly transpired after the discovery of “no rock formation” was made? What considerations justified the Project authorities to orchestrate such charade as wanting to build a barrage in place of a dam?
Beyond certain educated but unproven guesses, I suppose we will never know. But I do hope that I live long enough to see how the Punatsangchu Hydropower Project Authorities will bring this monumental hoax to its conclusion – in a manner that it will bear some semblance of credibility.
But one thing is now proven beyond doubt - Mr. Khazanchi the decorated hero of the PHP-I imbroglio was being cute when he grandiosely coined the phrase “geological surprise”. Because now it is proven that he knew damn well that the “surprise” was never a surprise but a tested and proven reality – which he blatantly chose to ignore - for reasons only he can explain!
