Criteria change for awarding Arun III, Upper Karnali
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, Dec 30 - A cabinet meeting on Sunday directed the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) to award the 402 MW Arun III and 300 MW Upper Karnali projects on the basis of directives issued by the interim parliament's Natural Resources and Means Committee, effectively rejecting recommendation of a taskforce formed in October last year. "The cabinet decided that the projects be awarded on the basis of directives of the parliamentary committee," said Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel. Minister of Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki was not available for comments.
The taskforce, headed by former secretary Bhanu Prasad Acharya, had recommended in April this year that both the projects be awarded to India's GMR Energy Ltd. Nine companies had submitted proposals for Arun III and 14 for Upper Karnali.
In July, the parliamentary committee directed the government to re-evaluate the project proposals giving top priority to free energy, free equity and other concrete benefits offered to Nepal by the prospective developers. MoWR presented the recommendation of the taskforce as well as directives of the parliamentary committee at Sunday's cabinet meeting.
Poudel said that now MoWR will be tasked with informing the interested developers of the criteria set by the parliamentary committee, ask them how much free energy, free equity and other concrete benefits they are willing to offer, and take decisions on the two projects accordingly.
The taskforce headed by Acharya had also taken into consideration other parameters such as listing in the stock exchange, experience, financial soundness, power marketing arrangements and project completion date.
Source: The Kathmandu Post Daily, 31 December 2007.
KATHMANDU, Dec 30 - A cabinet meeting on Sunday directed the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) to award the 402 MW Arun III and 300 MW Upper Karnali projects on the basis of directives issued by the interim parliament's Natural Resources and Means Committee, effectively rejecting recommendation of a taskforce formed in October last year. "The cabinet decided that the projects be awarded on the basis of directives of the parliamentary committee," said Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel. Minister of Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki was not available for comments.
The taskforce, headed by former secretary Bhanu Prasad Acharya, had recommended in April this year that both the projects be awarded to India's GMR Energy Ltd. Nine companies had submitted proposals for Arun III and 14 for Upper Karnali.
In July, the parliamentary committee directed the government to re-evaluate the project proposals giving top priority to free energy, free equity and other concrete benefits offered to Nepal by the prospective developers. MoWR presented the recommendation of the taskforce as well as directives of the parliamentary committee at Sunday's cabinet meeting.
Poudel said that now MoWR will be tasked with informing the interested developers of the criteria set by the parliamentary committee, ask them how much free energy, free equity and other concrete benefits they are willing to offer, and take decisions on the two projects accordingly.
The taskforce headed by Acharya had also taken into consideration other parameters such as listing in the stock exchange, experience, financial soundness, power marketing arrangements and project completion date.
Source: The Kathmandu Post Daily, 31 December 2007.
