India agrees to supply 600 MW power to Nepal for additional four hours

Kathmandu, Mar. 28: The government of India has agreed to supply electricity to Nepal for additional four hours.

 India has agreed to allow Nepal to import additional 600 megawatts of electricity for four hours, excluding solar hours (6 am to 6 pm) from the competitive market, Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Dipak Khadka told The Rising Nepal on Thursday night. 

Currently, India has been providing electricity only from 6 am to 6 pm, but now the government of India will be provided electricity from 11 pm to 4 am as well. India has agreed to provide electricity for additional four hours after diplomatic initiatives of Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Khadka and Foreign Minister Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba.

The Indian government has approved the provision to provide additional 600 megawatts of electricity through Indian Energy Exchange (IEX). 

With this new provision, India now will be providing electricity to Nepal 16 hours. Earlier, it was supplying power for 12 hours a day. The electricity will be imported from 6 am to 5 pm (in solar hour) and 11 pm to 4 am (in off -solar hour) a day, Khadka said.

The electricity will be supplied to Nepal through the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line. Currently, India was providing 1,004 megawatts of electricity in solar hours from the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) until June 30.

“During my latest India visit, I had requested the government of India to provide additional electricity to Nepal during the dry season. In the meantime, during the recent India visit, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Rana asked the government of India to provide additional electricity to Nepal to overcome the present short supply of electricity. India has made the arrangement to increase electricity supply hours responding to our requests,” he said.

Minister Khadka said that it was a matter of happiness for all of us that India has agreed to provide electricity to Nepal after Nepal requested additional electricity from the Indian government to solve the electricity problem during the dry season. He said that the import of additional electricity will start within one or two days.

Import of 600 megawatts of electricity during the night will help reduce load shedding in the industrial sector. He said that the industrial sector was facing 12-hour load shedding every night, but now that period would be reduced.

He said, “The government is committed to providing electricity to the Nepali people around the clock. It is just a rumour that there will be load shedding, no one should believe the rumour.”

The business communities demanded the government make arrangement for the regular power supply to the industries citing that the power outage has affected not only the production but also the overall country’s economy.