By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : Sixteen months after the fall of King Gyanendra’s government, politics continues to block Indo-Nepal power projects.
In 2005, after King Gyanendra seized power with the help of the army, the Indian government put most projects on hold to express its displeasure at the act.
While the king’s regime had tried to woo Indian projects, the new multi-party government that came to power in April last year however is dragging its feet on power projects due to growing politicisation.
On Friday, India’s Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told the Indian parliament that the governments of India and Nepal were “engaged in finalising the detailed project report (DPR)” of the Pancheswor Multipurpose Project, a 5,600 MW project that the two countries agreed in 1996 to build together.
In reality, the Pancheswor project is virtually dead.
In 1999, when the then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh visited Nepal, the two governments agreed that the DPR should be completed on a priority basis. Subsequently, in 2002, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) issued a statement saying the DPR “is nearing completion”.
However, five years later, no further progress has been reported on a project once considered to be a priority. Instead, there is growing resentment against the power treaty itself in Nepal, with the Maoists, who are now in the government, demanding that it be scrapped.
The Pancheswor project, touted as the “centrepiece” of the 1996 Mahakali Treaty, envisages building a 315 m high dam across the Mahakali river flowing between Uttar Pradesh’s Pithoragarh district and Baitadi district in Nepal. It is being opposed by some of the ruling parties due to the fear that it would give undue irrigation benefits to the Indian state, and by a group of NGOs on the ground it would affect the ecology of the area and displace thousands on the Nepal side.
Shinde also told Lok Sabha Friday “a Joint Project Office has been established in Nepal with Indian assistance to carry out field investigations for preparation of the DPR for the 3,300 MW Sun-Kosi Sapta Kosi Project”.
The information is more then two years old. In 2004, PIB issued a statement saying: “The joint project office of India and Nepal for investigation of the Sapta-Kosi High Dam Multipurpose Project and Sun-Kosi Storage-cum-Diversion Scheme (has been) established at Biratnagar, Nepal. The project envisages mitigation of flood problems in North Bihar as well as hydropower generation and irrigation.”
The minister also told Lok Sabha: “Preliminary discussions have also been held on the feasibility of Naumure hydroelectric project (in Nepal)”.
This is a 200-250 MW project that Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala requested India to develop for his cash- and power-strapped country when he visited New Delhi last year. Since then, though Indian officials have asked Nepal to provide details about the kind of project they would like, Kathmandu is yet to respond.
Last year, in a written statement in Lok Sabha, Shinde had said five power projects were under discussion.
One of them, the Upper Karnali project, had practically died last year itself. Subsequently, Nepal decided to ask private investors to bid for it. Though several Indian private sector companies are in the fray, the government is yet to take a decision due to political pressures.
The Maoists and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, as well as some NGOs, have been opposing some of the power projects.
The Maoists especially are opposed to the interim government signing any major project. They want issues of national interest to be kept on hold till a general election is held following the constituent assembly election in November and an elected government is formed.