Sep 15, 2006

In a historic gathering, private investors from India and Nepal come together to discuss the mutual prospects under active encouragement from two governments

By A CORRESPONDENT

After years of harping about the potentials of water resources and prospects of cross-border power trade, finally there was a concrete beginning last week when private investors from India and Nepal came together at the Power Summit organized jointly by the Independent Power Producers of Nepal (IPPAN) and Power Trade Company (PTC) of India .

The two-day summit was fruitful in that it brought the actual investors, business professionals, experts, financiers and insurers together at a single forum where all kinds of issues from policies and laws to technology and trade were discussed.

The Summit was seriously and actively promoted by the two governments as well. While senior ministers of Nepal attended the inaugural session of the summit and vowed to help in facilitating the investment in power sector in Nepal , the fact that PTC was a co-organizer ensured that big and reputed Indian companies participated in it.

Addressing the summit, president of IPPAN, Dr. Sandip Shah said that investment of $100 billion is required to harness 40,000 MW from Nepalese rivers. “This money cannot be raised by the government or the donors as they have other pressing socio-economic priorities. It is the private sector that has to be allowed to invest in this field on commercial basis,” he said.

Dr. Shah called on authorities of both the countries to come to terms with the fact that power should be treated as commodity, which can be traded on commercial terms. Till now, the issue of power has always been related with that of water resource and nationality, which has hindered smooth progress on investment and trade of power.

“There are excellent opportunities for power trade between Nepal and India . At present, Nepal can export power to India during monsoon season and import during winter season,” said Gyanendra Lal Pradhan of IPPAN. He added that once big hydro projects in Nepal are developed, the neighboring Indian markets provide it with waiting market. “We are lucky that we are so close with Delhi grid and northern grid in India , which are heavily energy deficient,” he added.

The first-of-its-kind energy conference of private sector investors of Nepal and India was participated by 150 representatives of 50 influential companies – mostly from India . The participants include some leading names from India and Nepal like Jaypee Group, GMR, IL&FS, ICICI Securities, POWERGRIP, LANCO Group, Teesta Urja, Alstom Projects, IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance, SBI Capital Markets from India and Butwal Power Company (BPC), SN Power Invest, Standard Chartered Bank, Everest Bank Limited from Nepal .

Underscoring the tremendous potential that lie between Nepal and India , TN Thakur, chairman and managing director of PTC India said, “Energy is fast growing and crossing boundaries. Power trading has a huge scope and could compliment each other’s need.”

During the summit, Indian ambassador to Nepal Shiv Shankar Mukherjee pledged to fund a 100 to 150 MW project in Nepal . The Indian envoy said that consultations were on to help fund a project that could help in internal consumption of Nepal . The Indian assurance came at a time when Nepal is reeling under the problem of load shedding due to absence of new hydro projects. Mukherjee also said that India is positive towards commercial sales of power to Nepal during winter season even though “ India itself faces power shortage.”

Prachanda Responds To Peoples’ Queries

In a live interview by BBC Nepali Service on Friday (September 8), Maoist chairman Prachanda responded to various questions put forth to him by various people who raised their questions via live telephone, email or mail.

During the one-hour-long first-of-its kind program, Prachanda compared the bloodshed during the decade-long insurgency with ‘labor pains.’ When a new Nepal is born, everyone will forget the pain as labor pains and will be happy with the beautiful Nepal , he said responding to a question on how he feels about the bloodshed.

When a street vendor woman from Pokhara asked Prachanda why she was targeted by the Maoist bomb, Prachanda said he was sad that in some cases innocent and untargeted civilians had to bear the brunt of violence. He, however, justified the Maoist violent insurgency saying that in a history of every great nation, there would be such a phase.

In reply to a question about why the Maoists used brutal and merciless methods for killing its ‘enemies’ Prachanda said that his party did not have any policy of using brutal methods and regretted some such incidents.

When a caller from Madi, Chitwan, asked Prachanda about the Maoist bombing of a civilian bus, the chairman said that incident made him sleepless for three nights. “It was one of the most unfortunate incidents,” he said, adding that he planned to visit people of Madi soon.

On political issues, Prachanda hoped the forthcoming peace talks would produce date for constituent assembly elections and agreement on arms management.