DEHRA DUN, DECEMBER 28 All it took was a watermill, a social scientist and one enterprising Army officer. And an idea that generated in Uttaranchal is lighting remote villages in another part of the country: Arunachal Pradesh.

In April this year, two jawans of the 26th Battalion of Assam Rifles posted in the border areas of the North-East came to Dehra Dun on the initiative of their Commanding Officer Col Prakash Tewari to get training in installation and running of improved watermills to generate electricity.

The success of the project back in Arunachal led to such demand for similar mini-hydel projects that two more jawans are reaching here soon for training, with a demand for 20 additional improved watermills.

Tewari had heard of the pioneering technology developed by Dr Anil Joshi, who runs Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO), to generate power using century-old gharats or watermills. As Assam Rifles was already conducting border-area development projects in Arunachal, which included installing watermills for grinding grains on numerous streams, Tewari thought of using them to generate power as well.

The jawans learnt to operate the turbine and to produce electric power from Joshi, and then went back and replicated the model in Singhbir village of Menchukha circle in Arunachal. By August this power, the village had a running power station for Rs 45,000 only. The villagers formed a committee to run the project and employed local youth for running the mills at night. Marginal money was charged per house to meet the maintenance expenses and to pay salaries to employees.

As the news spread, people of neighbouring areas started approaching the Assam Rifles battalion to get similar arrangements at their watermills. More than 43 villages pooled in money to get mini-hydel projects. Most of the remote villages in the mountainous area of Arunachal have no electricity and no hopes of getting any in the near future.

The news eventually reached the state capital, and Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Gegong Apang visited the project site last month. CDs of the success story have now been distributed to all the units of Assam Rifles posted in the North-East. ‘‘Director General of Assam Rifles Lt Gen H.S. Kanwar has shown keen interest and more and more units are planning to run such pilot projects,’’ Col Tewari says.