Locals seek govt’s stance on Upper Karnali hydropower

By Our Correspondent
Dailekh, March 14

The concerned people of Dailekh have asked the government to come up with a firm stance on Upper Karnali Hydropower Project within a month.

They have warned the government that if it was not serious to listen to the local voices, they would be compelled to force the project to close down.

They said this at an interaction organised at Daab of Satla Village Development Committee (VDC) Dailekh on Friday.

The interaction was attended by representatives of Ministry of Water Resources, political parties, local stakeholders’ struggle committee and the GMR Energy Limited, an Indian company proposed for the project development.

The stakeholders have demanded that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Water Resources should make a conclusive decision regarding the development of the project.

The 300 MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project is a peaking run-of- the river project located in Karnali River in Achham, Surkhet and Dailekh Districts of Far Western Development Region of Nepal.

Bam Bahadur BC, president of the struggle committee, said that the project was against the local people’s benefit and the government

should make a clear decision on the issues before developing the project.

He said that the government had granted permission to the GMR to develop power without prior agreement of the local people, which was against the country’s benefit. He has demanded to scrap the project.

Likewise, the local people said the project should be operated and owned by the government itself. "We are facing increasing power shortages which the government should now realize and go for development of power," they said.

However, the stakeholders, have demanded the project’s shares to the local people, and the GMR should supply power to the mid and far western region free of cost. They have also demanded to increase Nepal’s share in the electricity to 50 per cent from the existing 12 per cent.

On the interaction, Prabin Raj Aryal, representative of the Ministry of Water Resources advocated that Nepal was not able to construct such a huge project, as a result it had been given to the GMR.

A consortium comprising GMR Energy Limited, GMR Infrastructure Limited (GIL) and Italian-Thai Development Project Co. have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Nepal, for developing the 300 MW Upper Karnali Hydro electric Project.
The project will be developed on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis.

The plant is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2015-16.

The Government of Nepal has agreed to grant the licenses for generation and transmission of Electricity to JVC for the development and operation of the Project for a period of thirty (30) years from the date of issuance of such licenses on Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis.

During the validity period of the licenses, JVC shall maintain and operate the project according to generally acceptable prudent hydropower and electricity utility practices and hand over the ownership of the project to the Government of Nepal, free of cost, at the end of such period.

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