Kathmandu, September 7

The Ministry of Energy has instructed the chiefs of the generation projects being developed under Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to ensure early completion of the projects. Citing inefficiency of most of the projects as they have already missed the deadline several times, Minister for Energy Mahendra Bahadur Shahi had summoned the projects’ chiefs today.

Minister Shahi urged the chiefs of the projects to initiate serious efforts to complete the projects within the desired time frame. Due to delay in the construction of generation project, cost of the project balloons, while the power utility has been losing huge amount of revenue at the same time.

The energy minister also assured the project heads that he will take the lead in resolving the problems they are facing in a bid to expedite the projects.

Chiefs of the 11 generation projects, namely Upper Tamakoshi, Chameliya, Kulekhani III, Rahughat, Upper Trishuli 3A, Lower Sanjen, Upper Sanjen, Rasuwagadhi, Middle Bhotekoshi, Tanahu and Upper Trishuli 3B under NEA have submitted the progress report to the minister.

These projects have complained about the right of way clearances due to stringent forest rules, local disputes, hassles in land compensation distribution and inefficiency of the contractors as the major hassles to accelerate the projects.