The Government of Nepal has decided to hand over the contract of the 750-megawatt West Seti Hydropower Project and 308-megawatt SR6 Storage Hydroelectric Project to National Hydro Power Company Limited, India, nearly four years after China withdrew from it.
Key highlights
- The 51st meeting of the Investment Board Nepal (IBN) chaired by Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has decided to award the company with the contract as per the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.
- During a local bodies election campaign in May 2022, Deuba had declared that since India was Nepal’s power market and it had a policy of not buying power from China-executed projects, West Seti would be given to India.
- The Project is located on the Seti River.
- India has undertaken to harness or expressed intent to harness major rivers in the north.
- An ambitious Mahakali treaty was signed in 1996, to produce 6,480 MW, but India has still not been able to come out with the Detailed project Report.
- The Upper Karnali project has not made any headway for years.
- However, India has successed in executing the 900-MW Arun-3 project in eastern Nepal’s Sankhuwa Sabha, which is being executed by India’s Sutlej Vidhyut Nigam under a BOOT scheme.
- Nepal’s Constitution has a provision under which any treaty or agreement with another country on natural resources will require Parliament’s ratification by at least a two-thirds majority.
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