The govt decision to include people in the energy sector is welcome; however, this policy needs technical and financial backup

The 500KW capacity Pharping Hydropower project, which came into operation in 1911, is the country’s first power plant. Since then, we have just been able to generate around 900 MW of electricity in the past 108 years. The total domestic demand stands at over 1,500 MW of energy, and the demand for electricity is growing every year by more than 10 per cent. The rest of the energy that we require is imported from outside. In order to drive our economy to the optimum level, we need to produce more energy to lift ourselves from a least developed to a middle-income  nation by 2030. After suffering for so many years of power outage for many hours a day, we are now free from this crisis after importing energy and improving the internal power distribution system. Come next year, we will have surplus energy during the wet season after the Upper Tamakoshi hydel project comes into full operation. We will also be able to sell our surplus energy to India, as per the latest power trade agreement, from next year.

Amidst this background, the government has envisaged an ambitious plan of generating 3,479MW of energy from 19 hydel projects already identified by the state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). The Ministry of Energy has envisage raising Rs 102.3 billion from the public to build these power plants under the “Nepal’s Water, People’s Investment” scheme, in which the public will be encouraged to buy shares of specific projects. The public will have 49 per cent shares in these projects. It will require Rs 698.8 billion to build all 19 power plants spread over all the provinces. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will be the first person to buy shares of the 37MW Upper Trishuli 3B hydropower project to be built in Nuwakot district. A person is required to open a demat account to purchase the shares. The ministry has said it will also pay interest to the public investors till a project starts generating energy.

The government decision to include the public as investors in the state-owned projects is highly commendable. The ministry has also assured, through legal provision, that their investment would not go to waste. However, there is a caveat: Will all the projects be completed on time? Going by the NEA’s track record, none of the projects it has built so far has been completed on time, resulting in  exorbitant escalation of cost of construction. Moreover, the NEA has also not finalised the detailed project reports and financial closure of all the 19 projects it plans to build. The general people might be unwilling to invest their money in a specific hydel project as long as its technical and financial status remains unclear. So the NEA should tell the people through its official website about how many years it will take to build a project and when it will start evacuating energy through the national grid. As the public will have 49 per cent share in these projects, the ministry should also ensure people’s representation in the management bodies. On the other hand, this scheme should in no way discourage the private sector from involving in the energy sector as it has made immense contribution in power generation in recent times. NEA’s institutional capacity needs to be improved to achieve the goal of generating energy through public participation.

Follow traffic rules

Death could have been avoided if only the Holi reveller had worn a safety helmet on Wednesday, the lone man to die during the celebrations in Kathmandu. The man of 29 years might have been attending work or whatever today had he not been under the heavy influence of alcohol that day. And the festival of colours would have been over like another fun day if only his friends had stopped him from driving the motorcycle in that inebriated condition, only to cause injuries to his head in an accident. Alas one can only regret over what has happened and just hope that the youths have learnt some lesson, after hearing of the incident, as to why traffic rules are there.

That 558 persons were booked by the Traffic Police for violating the traffic rules in the Kathmandu Valley on Holi just shows how negligent youths tend to be when it comes to their personal safety. There might have been many more violators of traffic rules who did not come to the notice of the police. The cops cannot be around everywhere all the time to remind people of the traffic rules. One’s safety is one’s responsibility.