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VOL. 27, NO. 18, January 11, 2007 (Paush 27 2064 B.S.)
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Bogged Down By Controversies
Water resource continues to be a magnet of controversy as Maoists raise fresh objection over proposed hydro projects
By SANJAYA DHAKAL
On the very day they re-entered the government, Maoists have kicked another controversy in the water resource – the magnet of controversies in the country.
As the cabinet meeting held a day before Maoists' re-entry in the cabinet had decided to award two mega projects to foreign companies, the Maoist Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara said his party smelled conspiracy in the whole process and threatened to derail it until a wider political understanding was reached on the issue.
However, despite their opposition, Minister for Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki has said that the government will proceed with the Arun III and Upper Karnali 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.
In line with the cabinet decision, the Ministry has formed a four member dialogue committee headed by Anup Kumar Upadhyaya, spokesperson at the Ministry and including Rajendra Kishore Chhetry (joint secretary, Water and energy Commission), Sunil Bahadur Malla (deputy director general, Department of Electricity Development) and Uttar Kumar Shrestha (deputy director general, Nepal Electricity Authority) as members.
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 of India 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 proposals in the first round.
Load Shedding Woes
As the demand for power has risen with the onset of winter, the supply has declined due to receding water flow in rivers. Citing this reason, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has decided to increase load shedding hours beginning Sunday.
The NEA has started clamping two and a half hours of load shedding everyday from Sunday (Jan 06). Each household will now face load shedding of fifteen hours a week – up from six hours - with each household enjoying a day without power cut in a week. The new schedule also includes power cuts in morning time.
The NEA officials have said that they face demands for 720 MW power while they can supply only 480 MW at present. The government expects load shedding woes can be lessened once it starts importing 40 MW of power from India from second week of January. But the import from India still looks uncertain as yet.
While the country is reeling under severe load shedding, Minister Karki has claimed that the government is planning to generate 5000 MW of power in coming ten years.
Karki said that the government intends to attract investors to develop the power. He said that if money and technology were available, Nepal can immediately develop 43,000 MW of power.
