By Our Reporter
The high-level seventh Nepal-India Joint Commission meeting of Nepal and India was held in Kathmandu on Thursday last week.
The biggest achievement of the meeting was the signing of the pact on a long-term electricity trade materialising the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two countries during the visit of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ to India in May-June last year.
Energy secretaries of Nepal and India Gopal Sigdel and Pankaj Agrawal signed the agreement in the presence of Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Shakti Bahadur Basnet. According to the agreement, India will export 10,000 MW power from Nepal in 10 years. However, the provisions of the pact are confusing as it was not made clear whether India would import the power generated by the Chinese companies in Nepal.
The JC meeting was co-chaired by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, NP Saud of Nepal and Minister for External Affairs, Dr. S Jaishankar of India.
The Government of Nepal has formulated an Energy Development Strategy to generate 28,000 MW of electricity in the next 12 years, and more than half of it will be exported to India and other regional markets.
Being the nearest market as well as power-hungry developing bordering states Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, India is the most favourable destination for Nepal in terms of energy trade although discussions are underway also with Bangladesh and China. Bangladesh has been expressing interest in investing in a project worth US$ 1 billion and importing electricity from Nepal.
An MoU for Cooperation in the Renewable Energy Development Between Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and NTPC Limited was also signed during the meeting.
Likewise, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) informed that the two ministers also jointly inaugurated, in virtual mode, three 132 kV cross-border transmission lines between India and Nepal, namely, the second circuit of Raxaul-Parwanipur line, the second circuit of Kataiya-Kusaha line, and the New Nautanwa-Mainhiya line. These infrastructures will facilitate in seamless flow of electricity between the two countries.
However, the JC meeting failed to make any headway regarding new entry air routes via Dhangadhi. Likewise, the meeting failed to convince the Indian Minister about the installation of an Instrumental Landing System at Gautam Buddha International Airport of Bhairahawa. Because of the failure to install the ILS, the Bhirahawa Airport has not come into operation during low visibility times.
India has not been cooperating with Nepal to bring its two newly built international airports Bhairahawa and Pokhara only because both of them were built in the Chinese cooperation.
The JC meeting was expected to settle the issue of air routes and instalment of ILS for Bhairahawa Airport, but it could not happen.
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