KATHMANDU, SEP 08 – With power developers holding project licences for long time without making any progress, the Ministry of Energy has formed a committee to monitor the progress made by hydel projects that have received survey and generation licences.
Ministry officials said following the rift between project developers and the government over the ministry’s licence scrapping initiative, it was necessary to deal with the matter extensively. Therefore, the committee was formed, they said.
The Department of Electricity Development has already recommended 50 projects, which have not accomplished the assigned tasks within the stipulated time, for annulling licences.
Based on the department’s recommendation, the ministry has begun the process of scrapping survey licences of 12 projects. The ministry last week forwarded these 12 projects to the department, asking initiation of the licence scrapping process.
“The committee will see if the promoters are making progress in project development,” said Energy Secretary Hari Ram Koirala said.
The committee led by the ministry’s joint secretary Anup Kumar Upadhya, comprises two other joint secretaries Sunil Bahadur Malla and Ravi Aryal and the department’s director general Dilli Bahadur Singh.
Upadhya said the committee would effectively monitor the progress of projects holding licence. “It will study documents submitted by project developers and will make presentation of the results every three months,” he said.
The ministry will also soon decide on the action to be taken against developers failing to develop hydel projects.
Source : EKantipur
