September 22, 2019
Kathmandu: Due to frequent complaints made by industrialists and the general public of Province 5 of not receiving adequate amount of electricity, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has warned the contractors building transmission lines that they will be penalised if they do not complete their projects on schedule.
Industrialists of Province 5 have lodged complaints at NEA that construction of transmission lines in Rupandehi, Nawalparasi West and Nawalparasi East districts needs to be accelerated as the industrial corridor in the region has been facing electricity shortage.
Kul Man Ghising, managing director of NEA, who along with a technical team had visited the affected areas on Friday and Saturday, has warned the contractors to complete the construction of transmission lines on time. “If the construction companies complete their projects on time then we will felicitate them, otherwise we will have to take action against them as per law,” he stated.
Earlier, NEA had awarded the contract to different contractor companies to build multiple 132 kVA transmission lines and also substations with the same capacity along the industrial corridor in the aforementioned districts.
The NEA team had visited the construction sites and taken stock of the problems related to land acquisition and use of forest land from the concerned stakeholders. “We have assured them to facilitate in the land acquisition process and use of forest land. Even after that if they are unable to construct the projects on time then they will have to face the legal consequences,” Ghising said.
As per the agreement with NEA, the contractors need to complete construction of Butwal-Lumbini 132 kVA transmission line and 132/33/11 kVA Manahiya substation by December.
Once these transmission line projects are completed NEA will be able to supply 200 megawatts of power to the area and will also be able to decrease electricity leakage by five per cent. Similarly, NEA team also held discussions with Dhiraj Sharma, mayor of Bardaghat Municipality of Nawalparasi West, to facilitate in the land acquisition process for construction of the 132 kVA Bardaghat-Serdi transmission line.
Meanwhile, NEA has said that it will be able to provide sufficient electricity to all special economic zones (SEZs), including Bhairahawa SEZ, after completion of the aforesaid transmission line projects.
Source: The Himalayan Times
