KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Energy has revoked the license of the Chainpur Seti River Electricity Project after the project failed to submit the progress report and pay the raised fees.
Gokarna Raj Pantha, Information Officer at the Department of Electricity Development,said that the licence of the project with a capacity to generate 454 Megawatt of electricity has been cancelled. Indian power development promoters Jindal Power was awarded the license for the construction of the project.
According to Pantha, the Ministry’s secretary level meeting annulled the license citing that the project failed to renew and submit its latest progress reports despite asking the project to do so from time to time. The project failed to renew as per the increase in the rate of renewal charges, he added.
The government will now take aghead the project placing it in the ‘basket fund’.
The government has lately increased the charges for projects over 100 Megawatts capacity by a significant amount.
Projects with a capacity of more than 100 Megawatts have to pay five million rupees annually.
Jindal Powers, the promoters of the project, had paid one million rupees last fiscal year to the government.
The preliminary survey works of the project had already been moved ahead.The hydro power project construction site is Chainpur in Bajhang district.
The project is said to be constructed at a cost of approximately Rs 65 billion.
Source : The Himalayan Times
