KATHMANDU; The government of Japan has agreed to extend grant assistance up to Rs 537 million for the execution of a project for introduction of clean energy by solar electricity generator system. Under the “Cool Earth Partnership” initiative which the government of Japan has taken since several years, the programme ‘Grant Aid For Environment and Climate Change’ aims to mitigate the effects of global warming by providing sustained and uninterrupted power supply to the Dhobighat reservoir, which will be used for pumping groundwater to the Sundarighat water treatment plant under Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Ltd (KUKL). It is KUKL’s responsibility to supply drinking water to the population of Kathmandu Valley.

Japan has decided to extend this grant to introduce this clean energy resource to set up to sustainable solar electricity generation system that has a capacity of about 200kW for the Dhobighat reservoir. The objective is to promote clean energy utilisation and achieve emission reductions by installing a photovoltaic system to be connected to the nationwide network of energy distribution system.

In this context, a set of notes was signed today between Japan’s ambassador to Nepal Tatsuo Mizuno and Ministry of Finance secretary Rameshwor Khanal on behalf of their respective governments.

It is expected that by utilizing the power supply for pumping groundwater, KUKL will trade surplus energy with Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and supply that surplus energy to the other KUKL pumping stations by establishing an appropriate mechanism so that it ensures more reliable energy supply to those stations.