Kathmandu, January 5

Last-minute cancellation of the meeting of the governing body of Pancheshwar Development Authority (PDA) has cast doubts on timely implementation of the 5,600-megawatt Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project being built on the Mahakali River in far-western Nepal.

Nepal was all set to host the third meeting of the governing body of the PDA in Kathmandu on Thursday.

The Ministry of Energy (MoE) had completed all the preparations for the meeting to be headed by Nepali Energy Secretary Suman Prasad Sharma and Indian Water Resources Secretary Sashi Shekhar. The MoE was even set to send a joint secretary-level staff to receive the Indian water resources secretary at the airport.

But late on Monday afternoon, the Indian side called the Nepali side to say the meeting has to be cancelled as the Indian water resources secretary was deputed to ‘attend another meeting in Australia’, an MoE source told The Himalayan Times.

The cancellation of the meeting comes at a time when Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae had publicly said supply disruption faced by Nepal was ‘a temporary phenomenon’ and this should not ‘prevent bilateral mechanisms from functioning’.

A few weeks before the statement was made, the Indian government had asked Nepal to propose a convenient date to hold inter-governmental committee meeting — a Nepal-India commerce secretary-level meeting in which problems faced by both the countries in trade and transit related issues are thrashed out.

Although this gesture was welcomed by the government, cancellation of the latest bilateral meeting is not being seen in a positive light, as such deferments automatically delay implementation of the crucial project, which can generate annual revenue of as much as $1 billion for Nepal.

However, Ashish Sinha, first secretary (commerce) at the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, said the meeting had to be cancelled because of ‘problems related to scheduling’ of the Indian water resources secretary.

“The agenda for the meeting is all set. It will be held within this month or next month,” he told THT.

Although the proposal to jointly develop the Pancheshwar project was floated almost two decades ago, concrete developments had not taken place for long.

Things finally started moving forward after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal in August 2014. Then in September 2014, the PDA governing body met for the first time and endorsed the Authority’s charter.

During that meeting, both sides had agreed to form an executive committee comprising a CEO, an additional CEO and six directors. The meeting had also agreed to appoint the first CEO and three directors from Nepal, and additional CEO and three other directors from India.

Since then, the second meeting of the governing body has been held in New Delhi and Nepal has appointed all executive committee officials, including the CEO and three directors. India has also appointed additional CEO and a director but it is yet to appoint finance and rehabilitation cum resettlement directors.

“We don’t know what is causing the delay,” the MoE official said.

However, Sinha said that the Indian government had sought applications from interested candidates, and a few had even responded to the call. “But they were not deemed suitable for the posts,” Sinha said, adding, “The director who has already been appointed is taking care of responsibilities of other directors as well.”

Nepal has long been pressing the Indian side 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 water level in the river. Also, the two reports need to be synchronised so that differences do not emerge during project implementation.

Currently, the PDA has appointed WAPCOS, an Indian state-owned company, to prepare the new DPR for Pancheshwar project. The progress made by WAPCOS, which has been seeking more time to complete the report, was also supposed to be discussed during the meeting of the governing body.

“We hope the meeting will be held in the beginning of February,” Nepali Energy Secretary Sharma told THT.