Kathmandu, October 20

A meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Somlal Subedi and held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers today made a four-point decision on the ways to overcome acute energy crisis in the upcoming dry season.

The meeting of secretaries decided to issue directives to the concerned agencies to maintain coordination among them to reduce power cuts in the spirit of the load-shedding reduction action plan prepared by the government last year.

Though the action plan had projected to generate 200 MW more electricity last fiscal, the government has thus far managed to produce only 86 MW. Therefore, the meeting directed the Ministry of Energy to expedite works as to reach the target of generating no less than 200 MW electricity by mid-July 2017.

The MoE has also been told to adopt various alternative measures to reduce load-shedding in dry season.

The government plans to build run-of-the-river hydro projects with installed capacity of 6,000 MW and storage projects with installed capacity of 4,000 MW in the next 10 years.

For this, the government is to complete construction of Chameliya and Kulekhani-3 hydro projects within a year, Upper Tamakoshi and Upper Trishuli 3A projects in two years and Rasuwagadi project in three years. Attempts will also be made to develop over 10,000 MW Karnali-Chisapani Multipurpose Project as a joint project between Nepal, India and China.”

To evacuate power generated by these projects, the government has allocated budget for construction of 400 kV Dhalkebar-Kathmandu-Hetauda and 400 kV Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa transmission line projects.

The government also intends to bring the National Transmission Grid Company into operation from the beginning of the next fiscal year. It is also planning to establish National Hydroelectricity Generation Company and National Power Trade Company within the current fiscal.