Nepali Team Delhi-Bound For Pancheshwor Talks

KATHMANDU, 18 NOV 2014 – Nepal and India will start discussion on Tuesday to make the Pancheshwor Development Authority functional. The two-day meet in the Indian capital New Delhi will focus on issues regarding recruitment of staff for the authority and its CEO, among others.

A team led by Energy Secretary Rajendra Kishore Kshatri left for New Delhi on Monday for the talks with the Indian side to be headed by Indian Water Resource Secretary Alok Rawat.

“The meeting will discuss the issues like recruitment policy of authority staff, including the CEO and funding for the project, among others,” said Kshatri, adding that the meeting’s main agenda will be to make the authority functional. “We will have to reach consensus on several issues.”

The two countries had endorsed the statute of Pancheshwor Development Authority in Kathmandu this September. The regulation has provided the much-needed impetus to the implementation of the project, envisaged by the Mahakali Treaty signed 18 years ago. The meeting will also discuss the preliminary report submitted by Wapcos Limited from India. Both sides had agreed to assign Wapcos to upgrade data for the integration of detailed project reports (DPR) prepared separately by Nepal and India. The DPRs, which were prepared around two decades ago, need to be integrated for comprehensive and updated data, Kshatri said. “Several facts and figures might have changed over the period. The report of Wapcos will clarify many technicalities regarding the project.” Also in the Nepali team are Joint Secretary at Energy Ministry Keshav Dhowj Adhikari; New Delhi-based Foreign Ministry representatives; representatives from Finance Ministry, Water and Energy Commission, Department of Irrigation and Pancheswar Multipurpose Project.

The project, situated in the Mahakali River on the Nepal-India border, is expected to generate 6,720MW of energy and irrigate 93,000 hectares of land in Nepal and 1.6 million hectares on the Indian side. The authority will comprise seven members each from Nepal and India and will be co-chaired by the Energy Secretary of Nepal and Water Resource Secretary of India. The CEO will head the executive committee.

Source:eKantipur