PM Oli discusses with ministers for increasing electricity consumption

Kathmandu: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday discussed with ministers and top-level officials on Energy Development Roadmap and Action Plan, which aims at increasing electricity consumption, capacity expansion of electricity and others.

During the meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in Singhadurbar, discussions were centred on legal, policy, institutional and procedural reforms as well as expediting production, infrastructure, trade and financial closure for the hydel projects to produce 28,500 megawatts of electricity by 2035.

The meeting was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel, Foreign Minister Dr Arzu Rana Deuba, Energy Minister Dipak Khadka, Chief Secretary Ek Narayan Aryal and others.

On the occasion, PM Oli directed to end the trend of failure to complete the projects in time and high cost of the projects due to procedural delay and lacklustre policies. The PM also urged to work for diversification in power trade and asked the stakeholders to work for power export to other countries via Bangladesh.

Likewise, PM Oli said that compensation to the project-affected communities, dispute settlement of the transmission line and systematic operation of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) should be carried out with high priority.

‘Not based on muscle, it (the energy sector) should be run based on law, need of the time and country’s necessity,’ PM Oli said asking the stakeholders to end irregularities in the energy sector. The Energy Development Roadmap and Action Plan is projected to create more than 865,000 jobs.

As per the Plan, Nepal Electricity Authority’s income equal to eight billion US dollars would be mobilized in the development of the energy sector till 2035.

Likewise, the government has set the target of investing an additional 500 million USD through the budgetary system for the development of the energy sector. It is also stated that more than 12 billion USD would be mobilized from those who have gone abroad employment, the Nepal Infrastructure Bank and through bonds.

Similarly, a goal has been set to increase the per capita electricity consumption to 1500 units to boost domestic consumption of electricity.

It is said the power need not be imported to meet the domestic electricity demand and the excess power can also be exported after the domestic supply is fulfilled. This would help reduce the country’s trade deficit.