KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 7
Minister of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal has said that the government is carrying out works with the goal of achieving full electrification throughout the country in the next two years.
She said this in the course of discussion on a proposal of urgent public importance titled 'Implementation of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project Development Agreement and Its Protection and Promotion for Use in National Interest', at a meeting of the House of Representatives today.
Stating that the government has a clear roadmap for a 'bright Nepal' through the appropriate development and production of hydroelectricity available in the country, Minister Bhusal said the country had not been able to produce electricity as expected due to economic and technical reasons.
She said the situation of power outage had ended in the country and appreciated the role played by the private sector in hydroelectricity production.
Study is on regarding many among the reservoir-based hydroelectricity projects, while the construction of Budhiganga and Dudhkoshi projects has reached the final stages of completion.
Regarding the Upper Karnali Project, the energy, minister said an agreement had been reached with the GMR Company of India for developing this project and the power generated from this project could be exported to Bangladesh.
She also informed the House about the work carried out so far on the construction of the West Seti Hydropower Project.
Lawmaker Rawal had drawn the attention of the minister to the matter of urgent public significance.
He said the agreement signed with the Indian company 14 years ago had not moved ahead even till date and an additional agreement had been reached with another company at present.
Rawal demanded that the agreements with companies that only keep the projects 'on hold' and do not carry out works be rescinded.
Pointing out that the country has not been able to benefit adequately from the hydropower generated in the country, he presented data showing that billions of rupees were being spent on importing fuel.
A version of this article appears in the print on September 8, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
