KATHMANDU, AUG 09 –
In a bid to mitigate and cope with the growing energy needs, the government has decided to accept $60m loan aid and grant assistance from the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank ( ADB ).
A Cabinet meeting on Thursday decided to accept $37 million loan aid from the WB for the Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (NIETTP) and $2 million grant aid from the ADB for the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). The government has assigned Finance Minister Shanker Prasad Koirala to sign agreements with the banks on behalf of the government.
According to government spokesperson Madhav Poudel, the loan amount will be provided to the NEA and the grant aid will be considered as the electricity authority’s share in the project.
The NIETTP aims to establish cross-border transmission capacity of about 1,000MW to facilitate electricity trade between India and Nepal and to increase the supply of power in Nepal by importing at least 100MW of electricity. Due to lack of a transmission line, Nepal has not able to import electricity from India as the latter had repeatedly agreed to export power through different border points.
Once the project sees the light of day, Nepal and India will have at least two transmission corridors between Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur and Hetuda-Dhalkebar-Duhabi. The first corridor will have 90km of 400kv double circuit transmission line between Muzaffarpur and Sursand and another 40km of 400kv double ciruct transmission line between Dhalkebar and Bhittamod on the border with India.
The second component is Hetuda-Dhalkebart-Duhabi transmission line and grid synchronisation as well as installation of properly tuned power system stabilisers in major power generating stations in Nepal and India.
The meeting also took notice of the Home Ministry’s proposal to amend the Annex 1 of Nepal Citizenship Regulation (2063 BS) and forwarded it to the Bills Committee of the Cabinet for further study. “The committee will take suggestions from the Cabinet before amending the proposal,” said Poudel.
Source :The Kathmandu Post
