Minister Khadka calls for producing adequate electricity for round-the-year consumption

Kathmandu, July 19: Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Deepak Khadka, asserted that the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) should increase production of electricity that is adequate to consume round-the-year.

In the welcome programme organized by the NEA for the newly appointed Minister in its office, Minister Khadka called for increasing production of energy since there were problems due to low production of energy during the winter.

Khadka emphasized that the NEA should devise plans and enforce them effectively to ensure electricity during the winter and pledged his Ministry's support to the NEA for the same. 

On the longstanding dispute regarding 'dedicated' and trunk' line between the NEA and the entrepreneurs, the Minister opined that the entrepreneurs should pay for the electricity they consumed. He, however, viewed that NEA should not unnecessarily trouble entrepreneurs.

The new Minister also pledged to ensure round-the-clock supply of electricity to households of all citizens and enterprises and industries.

Stating that the energy sector was important for Nepal, he directed all staffers in his Ministry to deliver on the development of electricity.

He asserted that NEA should set a target to produce 20,000 megawatts of electricity within 10 years instead of 10,000 megawatts.

Similarly, Keshav Kumar Sharma, Secretary of the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat, observed that Nepal made a huge stride in energy sector. 

He suggested that the government should take general public and industrialists into confidence there will not be any power outage anymore.

Likewise, NEA Executive Director Kulman Ghising shared that 3,157 mega watt of electricity were being produced in the country at present. He added that 463 mega watt of electricity has been added in the past one year alone. 

The NEA has been making around Rs 10 billion to Rs 12 billion profit annually for some years now, he informed.

Janardan Bhattarai, Chairperson of the NEA Trade Union said that the problems of the employees within the NEA should be addressed for the NEA to move ahead thereby aiding in the country's economic advancement. (RSS)