Nepal to Purchase Electricity From
India
Feb 12, 2008 - Xinhua
Nepal is preparing to buy 40 MW of electricity from
India to prevent longer hours of power cut in the
country, a senior official has said.
Secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources Shankar
Koirala on Monday told the Finance Committee of the
interim parliament that the government was at the
final stage of the project, local newspaper The Rising
Nepal reported Tuesday.
Arjun Karki, executive director of Nepal Electricity
Authority (NEA), presented to Committee members NEA's
short-term and long- term programs for reducing the
load shedding gradually. He, however, ruled out the
possibility of reducing the load shedding in the near
future.
Currently weekly load shedding has reached to 46
hours in capital Kathmandu.
Nepal has a demand of about 700 MW electricity, but
the total generation capacity is only 550 MW which
comes down to only about 300 MW during the dry season.
The NEA's plan for reducing the load shedding includes
curtailing the use of electricity through demand side
management and it has put forth some alternative ways
for the purpose.
Buying electricity from India and controlling leakage
are NEA's short-term programs, Karki told the Committee.
Under the long-term program, the NEA has presented
two schemes including operating the current electricity
projects effectively and launching new ones.
Lawmakers asked the government to reduce the duration
of load shedding at the earliest possible.
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