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Nepal invites foreign investment for power project
NEW DELHI. Feb 15: Nepal is inviting foreign private investment to develop an ambitious hydro-electric protect which the World Bank has rejected as unviable, Nepal's Water Resources Minister Pashupati Shumsher Rana said yesterday, reports Reuter.
Rana, on visit to the Indian capital, said the 402-megawait Arun 111 Protect in eastern Nepal's Sankhuwa-sabha district waa one of many projects open for private sector participation and foreign investment.
The Arun III Is ready for tendering and thus in* the forefront of project opportunities (for investors). Rana told a meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CID-
Last August, the World Bank withdrew a promised. 175 million dollar loan for the first phase of the project, which was designed to produce 201 megawatts of electricity in the remote Arun valley. The bank said the facility was too big for Nepal to
one billion dollar plan was to have been co-funded by Western donors, including Germany and France and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Rana dropped out of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's tour of southern India — part of an ongoing week-long goodwill visit to discuss details of hydro-electric projects with Indian businessmen.
“Nepal's economic policy is clearly in favour of private enterprise". Rank said. His majesty's government of Nepal has embarked on. and remains committed to an
ambitious economic liberalisation programme".
Rana told a news conference the Himalayan kingdom offered a 15-year tax hobday. cut-rate land and Import duty concessions to foreign In vestors.
India and Nepal on Monday sfgned an agreement to develop the Mahakhall river on1 Nepal's western border, ending a decade-old dispute over sharing power and water from projects on the river. The pact has paved the way for Indian investment.
Officials said India had agreed to buy from Nepal excess electricity generated by a planned multi-billion-dollar project, the Pancheswar Project. An Indian project already exists in Tanakpur village
Haggling over Delhi's pay for electricity
Another report adds: India and Nepal are haggling over how much New Delhi should pay for electricity from a planned hydroelectric power plant near their mutuid border. officials said.
The negotiations follow Monday's signing of a treaty giving Nepal more water and electricity from two existing power plants on the Mahakall River on Nepal's western border with India and providing for construction of a third, five billion dollars facility.
The Pancheswar Dam will also be built on the Mahakall with a generating capacity of between 2.000 ano 6,000 megawatts of electricity", while India has agreed to buy Nepal's excess power from the facility.
Officials from the two countries have in the past few days been finalising the draft of the agreement on electricity exchange, which will ease power purchases by private institutions.
"Fixation of tariff (of electricity) Is a problem." said Indian Power Secretary P Abraham of the talks, adding that "this should not come in the way of project implementation".
Dwarika Nath Daungel, Nepal's Water Resources Secretary. told Reuters his country wanted to sell electricity at the "avoided cost", which would bring more benefits to the Himalayan kingdom than the actual production cost India has asked for.
The avoided cost is the amount India would incur if It had to build its own facility to provide the same amount of electricity that it imports from Nepal, while the actual cost is the production cost plus some profit margin to
We want to build on the goodwill created by the latest accord on hydro-electricity and sort out our difference." added Dhungel in New Delhi with colleagues involved in the talks.
The Mahakall River basin treaty singed on Monday In New Delhi settles a decade-old dispute over water and a electricity, with Nepal complaining that It was not receiving enough of either.
The new Dam will not only create power but also irrigate vast stretches of agricultural land in both countries while India's purchase of surplus electricity from Nepal will help trim Kathmandu's 304 million dollars trade deficit with its neighbour.