Kathmandu- The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has postponed the release of its white paper, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday, citing technical reasons.
According to the Secretariat of the Authority’s Managing Director, Hitendradev Shakya, the white paper was initially set to be released at 11:30 AM on Tuesday. However, due to unforeseen technical issues, the event has been postponed until further notice.
The white paper had been approved by the NEA’s board of directors during a meeting held on Monday, chaired by the Minister of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation, Deepak Khadka. A board member stated that since the white paper was approved on Monday, a schedule had already been set for making its contents public.
Previously, former Managing Director Kulman Ghising had claimed that 99% of the country was electrified. However, the new white paper reports the actual electrification rate to be 91.41%. It also states that the total number of customers as of January 8 was 5,586,037, whereas Ghising had earlier mentioned a figure of 5.935 million, including community connections.
“The white paper was supposed to be released on Tuesday,” a board member explained. “However, after reviewing the electrification data, it was found that the number of households with access to electricity was lower than previously reported. Therefore, the board meeting instructed that this data be adjusted.”
The member further noted that no additional instructions were issued during Monday’s board meeting. However, NEA spokesperson Rajbhai Shilpkar later stated that the release was delayed due to new directives issued on Tuesday. “There were additional instructions from the board, and the white paper needs to be revised accordingly,” he stated.
Source: Kantipur
