Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal has said that the government is carrying out works with the goal of having full electrification throughout the country in next two years.
She said this in course of discussions on a proposal of urgent public importance titled ‘Implementation of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project Development Agreement and Its Protection and Promotion for Using in National Interest’, in a meeting of House of Representatives today.
Stating that the government has a clear roadmap for a ‘bright Nepal’ through appropriate development and production of hydroelectricity available in the country, Minister Bhusal said the country however has not been able to produce electricity as expected due to economic and technical reasons.
She said the situation of power outages has ended in the country and appreciated the role played by private sector in hydroelectricity production. Study is ongoing regarding many reservoir-based hydroelectricity projects while construction of Budhiganga and Dudhkoshi projects has reached final stages of completion.
Regarding the Upper Karnali Project, Minister Bhusal said an agreement has been reached with 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 works carried out so far on the construction of West Seti Hydropower Project.
Lawmaker Rawal had drawn the attention of the Minister on the matter of urgent public significance. He said the agreement signed with the Indian company 14 years ago has not moved ahead even till date and an additional agreement has been done with another company at present.
Rawal demanded rescinding the agreements with those companies that only keep the projects ‘on hold’ and do not carry out works. Pointing out that the country has not been able to benefit adequately out of the hydropower generated in the country, he presented data showing that billions of rupees were being spent in importing fuel.
He wondered how the domestic businesses and enterprises could be made self-reliant when electricity export policy is being promoted in the context of very low per capita electricity consumption in Nepal.
