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Transmission Line Projects Kiboshed

  1 min 46 sec to read

A for SAARC bout a dozen projects to stretch power transmission lines have been put on hold due to delay in granting the projects the permission to use the forest area.Transmission Line Projects Kiboshed This is likely to result in Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) paying damages to the contractors and the independent power producers (IPPs), say NEA officials. Among the big projects so blocked are Hetauda-Bharatpur (220 KV), Singati-Lamusanghu (132 KV) and Kusum Hapure (132 KV), according to the high officials of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). Keshav Prasad Bhattarai, Secretary at Ministry of Forest accepted that there was some delay in case of Hetauda- Bharatpur project and claimed that all the projects are cleared within time. Accoridng to him, it takes between 15 days and one month to grant the clearance from the ministry. However, high officials at NEA say all the projects are suffering the same fate. They also claimed that none of the project is cleared in the time period of 15 days to one month.

According to the source, the application for the clearance for Hetauda-Bharatpur line was filed six months ago but not approved till mid-November. Similarly, the file for Kusum-Hapure has been pending at the ministry for four months while the Singati-Lamusangu line has been waiting for the permission for last five months. Though Bhattarai claims that the Singati-Lamosangu project is already cleared by the Ministry, Ramji Bhandari, the Project Manager of the transmission line said a condition put forward by the ministry has rendered it as a rejection of the permission.

According to him, the Ministry has required the project to buy a land plant trees there to compensate for the trees to be fell down in the project area. “This is impractical. Never had the Ministry put such a condition in the past,” he said. The Ministry’s condition requires that 25 new trees be planted for every tree felled in the project area. That requires hundreds of acres of land to purchase, he said.  

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