Kathmandu, August 3

Six high-ranking officials of Pancheshwar Development Authority (PDA) today left for the far western city of Mahendranagar to take stock of the site where 5,600-megawatt Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project is being built jointly by Nepal and India.

“During our stay there, we will visit the project’s dam site and get updates on works being conducted by WAPCOS (an Indian state-owned company , which has been hired to prepare a new detailed project report of Pancheshwar project),” said PDA CEO Mahendra Gurung, who is leading the team.

Other members of the team include HK Sahu, additional CEO of PDA; Dilip Kumar Sadaula, director (environment); Rudra Prasad Sitaula, director (legal); Baburam Adhikari, director (administration); and AK Kharya, director (technical).

Apart from Sahu and Kharya, all other officials of the PDA, who have joined the trip, are Nepalis.

This is the first time the top brass of the PDA have embarked on a visit to project site together.

“In the coming days we will set up office in Kathmandu and Mahendranagar, and start laying the groundwork for formulation of various bylaws to ensure smooth functioning of the PDA,” Gurung said.

Although Nepal and India have been holding discussions on development of the Pancheshwar project for almost two decades now, concrete developments had not taken place for long to implement the project.

However, the ice was broken in September last year when the governing body of PDA, which is co-chaired by Nepali energy secretary and Indian water resources secretary, held its first meeting and endorsed the charter of the Authority.

During that meeting, both sides had also agreed to form an executive committee comprising a CEO, an additional CEO and six directors.

At that time, it was also agreed that the first CEO of PDA — who’ll be in office for a three-year term — would be a Nepali, while additional CEO would be an Indian national.

Likewise, it was also agreed that of the six directors, three would be from Nepal and the other three, including finance and rehabilitation cum resettlement directors, would be from India.

Nepal has already appointed all executive committee officials, including CEO and three directors. However, India is yet to appoint finance and rehabilitation cum resettlement directors.

Nepal has long been pressing to give a full shape to the executive committee because it has to oversee the process of drafting the detailed project report (DPR).

Earlier, Nepal and India had prepared their own DPRs. However, these reports need to be updated, in view of construction cost escalation, and changes in socio-economic and hydro-meteorological data. Also, the two reports need to be synthesised so that differences do not emerge during project implementation phase.