PAC to dwell on West Seti Hydro project
Arjun Bhandari
KATHMANDU, July 29: The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee will discuss the amended and restated project agreement of the West Seti Hydropower Project at its meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
The Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation Ltd, which is slated to generate 750 MW West-Seti Hydroelectric in far-west, sent the draft to the Ministry of Energy for consideration on April 16.
PAC members are likely to focus on Clause 18.1 that outlines Nepal’s energy share and Clause 27.1, which talks about when all the government will be liable to compensate the WSH — armed conflict, riots and politically motivated strikes or industrial actions.
Other issues, such as benefits from the augmentation of the water flow, are outside the purview of the agreement and Nepal will have to negotiate with India separately, according to a government official.
He said the water of the river will irrigate around 90,000 hectares of land and an additional 2,20,000 hectares for vegetable farming. The government is scheduled to grant generation and transmission licence on August 31. Initially, an MoU was signed between the Government of Nepal and the developer in 1994 for the study and generation of the project, solely for exporting to India.
Generation and transmission licence will be issued by the end of August, while access rights to the project area and permission to acquire the land will be issued by the end of 2011.
The government has formed a taskforce, with one representative from the WSH, to facilitate and expedite the project. On June 21, the government informed the WSH it had formed a project steering committee.
The Asian Development Bank is providing US$ 45 million loan for the project.
Electrifying facts
• Installed capacity: 750 MW
• Average energy production: 3,636 gigawatt-hours
• Area covered: 2,060 hectares
• Total reservoir capacity: 1,566 cubic metres
• Height: 195 m from bed of the river
• Power generated from WSH will be exported to India
• WSH will be handed over to Nepal govt after 30 years
• Nepal gets 10 per cent of energy (75 MW) free of charge
Source: The HImalayan Times daily 30 July 2009. Â
KATHMANDU, July 29: The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee will discuss the amended and restated project agreement of the West Seti Hydropower Project at its meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
The Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation Ltd, which is slated to generate 750 MW West-Seti Hydroelectric in far-west, sent the draft to the Ministry of Energy for consideration on April 16.
PAC members are likely to focus on Clause 18.1 that outlines Nepal’s energy share and Clause 27.1, which talks about when all the government will be liable to compensate the WSH — armed conflict, riots and politically motivated strikes or industrial actions.
Other issues, such as benefits from the augmentation of the water flow, are outside the purview of the agreement and Nepal will have to negotiate with India separately, according to a government official.
He said the water of the river will irrigate around 90,000 hectares of land and an additional 2,20,000 hectares for vegetable farming. The government is scheduled to grant generation and transmission licence on August 31. Initially, an MoU was signed between the Government of Nepal and the developer in 1994 for the study and generation of the project, solely for exporting to India.
Generation and transmission licence will be issued by the end of August, while access rights to the project area and permission to acquire the land will be issued by the end of 2011.
The government has formed a taskforce, with one representative from the WSH, to facilitate and expedite the project. On June 21, the government informed the WSH it had formed a project steering committee.
The Asian Development Bank is providing US$ 45 million loan for the project.
Electrifying facts
• Installed capacity: 750 MW
• Average energy production: 3,636 gigawatt-hours
• Area covered: 2,060 hectares
• Total reservoir capacity: 1,566 cubic metres
• Height: 195 m from bed of the river
• Power generated from WSH will be exported to India
• WSH will be handed over to Nepal govt after 30 years
• Nepal gets 10 per cent of energy (75 MW) free of charge
Source: The HImalayan Times daily 30 July 2009. Â
