Power-starved Nepal to import 50% power from India

India agreed to export 50% MW electricity to Nepal through Dhalkebar- Muzaffarpur 400-Kv transmission line The Dollar Business Bureau

As per the agreement, India will sell power to NEA (Nepal Electricity Authority) @ Nepali Rs 5.5 which is equivalent to INR 3.45 per unit

Prime Minister of Nepal K P Sharma Oli has arrived in Delhi on a six-day visit to India. His visit is mainly to ease the serious ongoing energy crisis in the country. The country has been declared as “energy emergency” with power outage occurring more than 10 hours every day. Upto 80 MW of power from India will be imported starting today via the Dhalkebar-Muzzafarpur Transmission Line. An agreement to the effect was signed between the two countries sometime back with the construction of the same beginning in 2007. PM Modi will inaugurate the line using a remote control from Hyderabad House, Delhi. This was revealed to the media by Energy Secretary Suman Prasad Sharma. India has already been exporting 230MW of electricity to the Himalayan country for some time which is proving to be inadequate as the country has been reeling under severe power cuts since 2007. According to PM Oli, Nepal’s biggest mission now is to rebuild the friendship with India with a focus to take the bilateral relationship to new heights. As per the agreement, India will sell power to NEA (Nepal Electricity Authority) @ Nepali Rs 5.5 which is equivalent to INR 3.45 per unit. Under the plan, Nepal will import approx. 50% MW country’s electricity from India in the first year. If the Nepali government’s plan is anything to go by it is confident that the current energy crisis will ease within a year as Nepal has been actively harnessing solar and wind energy, apart from increasing the hydro-electricity generation. At the moment It plans to ease out at least half of the country’s power outage with the additional energy it would receive from India. Nepal has about 850MW of electricity during peak season and the current electricity demand stands at 1,400MW.

February 20, 2016 | 05:40pm IST

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The Dollar Business Bureau - Feb 20, 2016 12:12 IST

Power-starved Nepal to import 50% power from India

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