Kathmandu, November 1

Stakeholders have urged Andritz Hydro to supply hydro equipment at a reasonable price and advance its after-sales service. During the Customer’s Day event organised by the Austria-based hydro equipment giant in the Capital to interact with clients, experts and potential buyers of hydro equipment and services, stakeholders have advised the company for fair rates, quality products and better after-sales services keeping in mind that Nepal could be a huge market for the hydro equipment supplier company.

Addressing the inaugural session of the two-day event, Minister for Urban Development Dila Nath Giri, said that the government has adopted flexible policies and announced various

incentives for hydropower developers in the country to establish the hydropower sector as a major source of income. He sought Austrian investment in the hydropower sector citing the country requires huge

investment to exploit its potential, which has remained untapped since long.

Similarly, Austrian Ambassador Designate to Nepal Brigitte Oepinger-Walchshofer emphasised on the need to develop hydropower sector in Nepal, which will minimise the dependency on fossil fuel and help Nepal to cope with the huge trade imbalance due to import of petroleum products.

“Hydropower is a clean, renewable source of energy, which helps to combat environmental degradation by minimising the use of the current sources of energy like biomass, coal and petroleum products, among others,” she said. “Nepal and Bhutan could supply clean and renewable energy throughout the region by harnessing their enormous hydroelectricity development potential.”

Kulman Ghising, managing director of Nepal Electricity Authority, said that Nepal is one of the biggest markets for the equipment supplier company Andritz and advised the company

to maintain the quality of its products and after-sales service. “Equipment supplied by Andritz are qualitative and after-sales service is also good enough based on my experience when I was with Chilime Hydropower Company.”

Chilime, Middle Bhotekoshi and Upper Tamakoshi are some of the representative projects, where Andritz has supplied its equipment, including generators and turbines, among others.

Andritz has also been supplying equipment to independent power producers.

Citing that NEA has recently concluded power purchase agreements of 300 projects with total capacity of around 3,500 megawatts, Ghising said these projects could be a potential market for Andritz. He urged the company to advance the quality of equipment and after-sales services.

Also addressing the event, Commercial Counselor of Austria to Nepal Osker Andesner, said that Austrian companies are interested to come to Nepal to expand their business following the footprint of Andritz Hydro, which is a visible champion in Nepal. “We also organised the first ever ‘Nepal-Austria Economic Forum’ on Tuesday to strengthen bilateral economic ties between Austria and Nepal,” he said.

Over 500 developers, experts and other people interested in hydropower development are participating in the two-day event, which kicked off in the Capital today.