Kopili Hydel Project of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation located at the remote part of Umrangshu sub-division of North Cachar Hill district of Assam is facing serious threat from tribal Dimasa militants belonging to the Black Widow group.
Many NEEPCO employees in the hydel power project have fled following the January 14 killing of five persons, including two security men of the plant and a minor girl, by suspected Black Widow militants at the gate of the power project.
NEEPCO alleges failure on part of Assam government to provide adequate security cover to the employees working in the power plant located in remote part of the violence-affected North Cachar Hills.
The plant's location is so remote that its officers and other employees have to travel a 20 kilometer hilly stretch daily from their residential colony to the plant site through dense forest under constant threat from prowling militants.
The NEEPCO authority had submitted a memorandum to Assam government last week setting a deadline for augmentation of security to its staff working in Kopili Hydel Project with an installed capacity of 275 MW.
The power project supplies 500 million units of hydro-electricity to Assam a year out of which 60 million units (six per cent) are provided free of cost and the rest of the units at 50