Govt planning to add 145 MW electricity to national grid soon

Govt planning to add 145 MW electricity to national grid soon
Nepalnews.com, 31-Dec-08

A top government official has said that the government is looking to adopt some strategies to decrease load-shedding hours, which if successful will relieve the nation from the power crisis that has direly affected all spheres of public life.

Secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources Shankar Prasad Koirala on Wednesday said that the government has already taken necessary initiative to import power from India in order to decrease the load-shedding hours that is tipped to increase from the existing 12 to 16 hours a day.

Koirala, who was speaking at an interaction programme in the capital, revealed that at least 145-megawatt electricity will be connected to the national power grid till the end of Falgun month, hence significantly reducing "load-shedding" that has also brought the industrial sector into a virtual standstill.

He said that 20 MW of electricity will connect to the national power grid from Tanakpur (India) and from Falgun the transmission line damaged by the Koshi floods will be repaired and 40 MW additional electricity will be imported from India.

Similarly, within Magh 35 MW will be connected to the national power grid. Talks have been initiated to import another 65 MW from Farbesgunj, Sitamani and Jayanagar of India, he said.

Koirala also informed that the government is toying with the idea producing electricity from solar, wind and wastes.

He also said that given the current power crisis the nation will have to face load-shedding for five more years. But he said that the government has also come up with special strategies, which if successful, will end load-shedding for ever.

Speaking at the same programme, Surendra Bir Malakar, president of Nepal Chamber of Commerce, said that the load-shedding regime has spelled disaster for industrial sector and it is now a time to declare "industrial crisis" in the country.

"The industrial sector has been completely ruined because of load-shedding. There's no alternative than to declare industrial crisis," he said, adding that the government should immediately come up with alternative method to decrease the load-shedding hours or see the industrial sector collapse.

He said that 40 percent of the country's industries have closed down their shutters due to load shedding, and said more industries are at the verge of closing down if the government doesn't do anything about it. nepalnews.com ag Dec 31 08