Citing power line status to be made mandatory

KATHMANDU, NOV 21 –

Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) is all set to make it mandatory for hydropower developers to mention the status of transmission lines in their prospectus before the initial public offering (IPO) .

Currently, the developers can just mention the date when the transmission line would connect to the project. “We are going to put in place a provision, under which the companies will have to exclusively mention about the status of transmission line in their prospectus,” said Sebon Director Niraj Giri.

Giving an instance of Sanima Mai Company’s failure to connect the transmission line to its Maikhola hydropower project, Giri said the delay in the power line construction has emerged as a big risk for investors.

Despite the completion of the 22MW Maikhola Hydro, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has not completed the construction of the transmission line.

With NEA facing problems like land acquisition, many under-construction projects may not get power line connection in time.

The under-construction Kabeli corridor transmission line will connect 90MW electricity generated by nine projects, including Maikhola, to the national grid. As per the original plan, the Kabeli corridor should have been completed by July this year. But NEA has extended the deadline to July 2015. NEA expects to complete the first phase by December 25.

Sanima Mai has said NEA’s failure to complete the transmission line has caused a huge loss to the project. Project officials said the project has faces a revenue loss of around Rs 50 million per month.

Source : eKantipur