SC issues interim order against Phukot Karnali hydel project

By Our Correspondent,Kalikot, Jan. 4: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order not to immediately implement the decision to award the 480-megawatt Phukot Karnali half-reservoir hydropower project to an Indian company. 

After a preliminary hearing on the writ filed by Yashoda Kumari Baral and Ajay Bahadur Shahi of Raskot Municipality in Kalikot district, Justice Til Prasad Shrestha issued a short-term interim order not to award the national pride project to the Indian developer till Sunday, January 7. 

Petitioner Baral said that a short-term order was obtained to discuss the issues with the defendant to decide whether to grant an interim order. 

The writ was filed against 10 government offices, including the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Forestry and Environment, the Department of Energy Development, Nepal Electricity Authority, Power Generation Company Limited and the office of the Phukot Karnali Hydropower Project.

During Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda's last visit to India, a memorandum of understanding was signed to allow an Indian company to build the Phukot Karnali semi-reservoir project. 

Likewise, an agreement was reached in March last year to give 51 per cent stake of Phukot Karnali to the Indian company NHPC. Baral said that the agreement should be revised and the majority of the shares should be in with the Nepali company and a certain amount of the shares should be distributed to the local people as well.

As the writ petitioner demanded the cancellation of 51 per cent shares given to the Indian company during the Prime Minister's visit to India, the court has summoned both sides on the issue of whether or not to issue a mandamus in the name of the government. 

The gross head of this project to be built on the Karnali River is 168.62 metres and the design discharge is 348 cubic meters per second. It is mentioned that after the construction of the project, electricity can be produced at full capacity for six hours a day during the dry season.

The electricity generated from the project will be connected to Nepal's national transmission system through a 400 kV double-circuit transmission line. 

Electricity can be produced at Rs. 92 billion in five years by constructing a 13-km tunnel.