HRF demands immediate scrapping of Adani’s 900 MW Raiwada PSP

Human Rights Forum (HRF) on Monday demanded that the Andhra Pradesh Government revoke all permissions granted for the 900 MW Open Loop Pumped Storage Hydro Power Project (PSP) proposed by the Adani Energy Hydro One Ltd (AEHOL) at Raiwada in Devarapalli mandal of Anakapalli district and Vepada mandal of Vizianagaram district.

A four-member fact-finding team of the HRF visited several villages in Devarapalli and Vepada mandals on 26-7-2025 and 6-8-2025." We spoke with

local residents, most of them Adivasis, whose lands, forest and water sources are directly threatened by the project. The AEHOL, a group company of Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) is pushing to construct an Open Loop PSP with a lower reservoir near Sammeda village in Chintalapudi panchayat of Devarapalli mandal and an upper reservoir at Marika village, located atop a hill in Karakavalasa panchayat of Vepada mandal, Vizianagaram district," HRF stated.

After the visit, HRF sought the cancellation of GO. 51 (dt: 30-6-2025) that accorded approval for enhanced capacity of the PSP from 600 MW to 900 MW and increased water allocation to it, must be immediately withdrawn.

The government proposes to acquire about 549 acres in the Chintalapudi panchayat and 213.8 acres in Marika village and hand it over to AEHOL for the lower and upper reservoirs respectively. This would dispossess Adivasis in the area of their ancestral lands and threaten local ecology. Through GO Ms. No.51, the government has also approved a huge increase in water allocation for the PSP - from 9 million cubic metres (MCM) to 23 MCM.

"This would allow the PSP to draw directly from the catchment of the Sarada river that feeds the Raiwada reservoir. This reservoir has a committed ayacut of over 15,344 acres serving 44 villages in the mandals of Devarapalli, K Kotapadu and Chodavaram in Anakapalli district and is a key drinking water

source for Visakhapatnam city. The Sarada river also sustains irrigation in about 6,000 acres unofficially and, further downstream, provides vital lower riparian rights to people in the Anakapalli, Kasimkota, Munagapaka, Yelamanchili and Rambilli mandals before reaching the sea. Diverting this scarce, life-sustaining resource for a PSP would endanger livelihoods, agriculture and drinking water security across the region and is wholly unacceptable," HRF declared in a statement.