Kathmandu, 9 December: A meeting has been held between Nepal’s Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation; Physical Infrastructure and Transport; and Urban Development, Kulman Ghising, and the Additional Secretary of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Munu Mahawar.
During the meeting held on Tuesday at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation in Singha Durbar, discussions were held on Nepal–India cooperation in the energy, water resources and irrigation sectors, electricity trade, expansion of transmission lines, and the progress of ongoing projects being constructed with investment from Indian government companies.
Discussions during the meeting also covered matters such as organizing a meeting of the bilateral mechanism on the energy and water resources sector, supplying water to Nepal during the dry season through the canal of the Mahakali Irrigation (Third Phase), issues related to the use of forest land for the 900 MW Arun III and 669 MW Lower Arun hydropower projects being built by an Indian government company, approval for additional electricity export from Nepal to India, and the import of electricity during winter months.
Minister Ghising requested that arrangements be made to allow electricity import for 24 hours a day for a few more months beyond the permitted period, as Nepal has received approval to import only a certain amount of electricity needed during winter months until the second week of mid December / mid January.
Ghising requested that the procedure requiring annual approval for exporting electricity to India’s competitive Day-Ahead and Real-Time Market be revised so that repeat approval is not needed once an initial approval is granted. He also urged that necessary consent be provided to enable the export of an additional 20 MW of electricity to Bangladesh using India’s transmission infrastructure.
Stating that necessary coordination and facilitation were being carried out by the Ministry and the Investment Board to resolve the issues related to the use of forest land in the Lower Arun and Arun III projects, he requested additional assistance for the construction of transmission lines through the Line of Credit from India’s Export-Import (Exim) Bank.
Additional Secretary Munu Mahawar requested necessary support to resolve the issues faced by the hydropower projects being constructed in Nepal by Indian companies. She stated that electricity trade and the expansion of transmission infrastructure between Nepal and India are gradually entering a new phase and achieving significant progress.
Present at the meeting were Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Ministry Secretaries Sarita Dawadi and Chiranjivi Chataut, Joint Secretary of the Ministry Sandeep Kumar Dev, representatives from the South Asia Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and officials from the Indian Embassy in Nepal.
