KATHMANDU: Deputy Prime Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi directed the employees of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to work in a way to avert energy crisis looming large in the country.

Reaching at the NEA office on Monday after two-and-a-half months of his appointment as Deputy Prime Minister, Rayamajhi, also Minister for Energy, urged the employees to chart out concrete action plan to end persisting energy crisis.

DPM Rayamajhi was quoted in Rastriya Samachar Samiti urging the NEA employees to do whatever they required in order to address the current problem.

The load-shedding has increased to 11 hours a day with the depletion of water level in the river of late, Rayamajhi said, adding the acute energy crisis has surfaced since the electricity sector has been affected the most from the ongoing Indian unofficial blockade.

The board of directors' meeting of the NEA has not been held since August 27 while its day-to-day operation here has been stalled due to dispute on Chief Executive Officer. Besides, the signing of power purchase agreement has also not been materialised since long.

Minister for Energy, Rayamajhi has expressed his confidence to resolve all the problems facing NEA including disputes on the members of its board of directors.

On the occasion, NEA's Managing Director Mukesh Raj Kafle shared the broader plan of action of the NEA. The heads of the trade union associations at NEA informed that as many as 530 transformers exploded lately due to excessive power consumption resulting in the obstruction of electricity supply in the country.

They had also pointed out the need to pay attention for the timely maintenance of the transmitters.