Minister of State for Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki has said that the government will abide by the instruction by the parliamentary committee to obtain free power from the West Seti project.
Talking to BBC Nepali Service, Thursday, Karki said he was confident that the Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation (SMEC), which is developing the 750-MW strong mega hydroproject, will be willing to accept this demand.
“I think they will be positive towards this demand,” Karki said.
Earlier, the Parliament Natural Resource Committee had approved the decision of the government to award the 750-MW strong West Seti hydropower project to Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation (SMEC) opening the door for starting construction of the mega power project, which is designed to export power to India on commercial basis.
However, the parliamentary committee had instructed the government to get 10 percent free power from the West Seti project. As per the understanding, the SMEC had agreed to give either 10 percent free energy or equivalent amount of money to the government. The SMEC had said it could build a separate 75 MW project if Nepal wants free power since it finds there will be technical difficulty in providing 10 percent power from the West Seti project itself due to lack of transmission facilities in the project site, which is located in Doti district.
The parliamentary committee, however, has instructed the government to get the free power from the West Seti project itself instead of equivalent amount of money.
“The committee has asked the government to hold necessary talks with concerned parties to obtain free power from the project instead of equivalent royalty,” Ram Sharan Ghimire, Secretary at the committee, told Nepalnews.
Ghimire added that the committee has also instructed the government not to award both the Upper Karnali (300MW) and Arun III (402 MW) to the same Indian company, GMR. Earlier, the taskforce headed by former finance secretary Bhanu Acharya had identified GMR’s proposal as most attractive for both the projects.