Minister says Arun III, Upper Karnali will proceed despite Maoist opposition
In the wake of comments by a Maoist minister that they have objection over the decision of the government to award big hydropower projects like Arun III and Upper Karnali to foreign companies, Minister for Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki has said that the government will proceed with the projects.
Addressing a press meet at the Water Resources Ministry, on Sunday, Karki said, "We have gone through the grilling by the parliamentary committees on Natural Resource and Finance where there were representations of the Maoists, as well. We think that since these projects are guided by national interest, there will not be any opposition by them."
Karki informed that the cabinet has authorised the ministry to go ahead with awarding the projects in such a manner that only one project will be awarded to a company/investor. He said that the cabinet has instructed them to hold talks with the companies, which have garnered maximum number of points in a list compiled by a taskforce formed to analyse their proposals , to extract maximum free energy from them.
Likewise, the government will obtain Rs 100,000 per MW before giving survey license to any company.
The earlier task force headed by former finance secretary Bhanu Acharya has given highest points to GMR Energy Limited for both Arun III (402 MW) and Upper Karnali (300 MW). The government expects to obtain around 124 MW of free power from Arun III and Upper Karnali.
Minister Karki also informed that as regards the third project Budhi Gandaki (600 MW), the government will re-open international competition since there were not any attractive proposal in the first round.
On the day of their re-induction into the cabinet, Minister for Information and Communication and leader of Maoist team in the cabinet, Krishna Bahadur Mahara had said that any decision on water resources should be reached only after wider political understanding. nepalnews.com sd Jan 06 08
