Connect with us

World

Is Nepal gifting a hydro-power project to India?

Published

on

Is Nepal gifting a hydro power project to India?

Is the Nepal government gifting a hydro-power project in Nepal that has a generation capacity of 669 megawatts to India? Probably, yes.

The 53rd meeting of the Investment Board Nepal chaired by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ on Thursday evening approved an investment worth Rs 92.68 billion proposed by India’s state-owned Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) to develop the 669 MW Lower Arun Hydroelectric Project.

This is the third project undertaken, all through negotiation windows, on the Arun river after the 900 MW Arun-III and 695 MW Arun-IV hydroelectricity projects. The investment cost of Arun III is $1.04 billion.

The SJVN is currently developing Arun III, another hydroelectric project in the same river basin. Nepal is also mulling to award Phukot Karnali Hydro Electric Project to India’s NHPC. The installed capacity of the project is 480 megawatts. Some other slew of agreements are expected to be signed during the visit of Prime Minister Prachanda that is expected to happen in May.

According to a statement issued by the Investment Board, the board of directors decided to form a ‘project development agreement negotiation committee’ led by the board’s chief executive officer, instructing it to submit the document of consensus to the board.

The three projects will generate nearly 2,300 MW electricity from the river in eastern Nepal. The SJVN is almost going to complete the Arun III project. During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lumbini, Nepal, the both sides signed the agreement for the development of Arun-IV on behalf of their respective governments.

In July 2021, Nepal signed a pact with India’s state-owned SJVN to develop the 679-megawatt Lower Arun Hydropower project in eastern Nepal.

The $1.3 billion project, the single biggest foreign investment project, as per the 2017 cost estimates, is located in Sankhuwasabha and Bhojpur districts of eastern Nepal. While signing the MoU in 2921, the SJVN would complete the detailed project study of the project and submit the detailed project report for approval at the board within two years from the agreement date. With the completion of the study, now the government is all set to award the development of the project to SJVN.

SJVN Chairman and Managing Director Nand Lal Sharma told the Indian media last year that they aim for projects generating 5,000 MW in Nepal by 2030.

In August last year, Nepal formally awarded the much-touted West Seti Hydropower Project and Seti River Project in western Nepal to India through a negotiation window, nearly four years after China withdrew from it.

Investment Board Nepal signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India’s state-owned NHPC Limited to develop the two projects-West Seti and Seti River (SR6)-joint storage projects totalling 1,200MW.

Many in Kathmandu believe that after India refused to buy energy invested other than its own investors, there is no other option left for Nepal to give some potential hydropower projects to India.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

World

Nepal MP takes off clothes in House after not being allowed to speak

Published

on

Nepal MP takes off clothes in House after not being allowed to speak

Kathmandu:  An Independent MP in Nepal, Amresh Kumar Singh, on Monday took off his shirt and vest in the House in protest against not being given time to speak.

Singh, a former Nepali Congress leader, contested the elections last year as an Independent candidate from Sarlahi after the Nepali Congress did not give him a ticket.

Singh, who had done Ph.D from Jawaharlal Nehru University in the Indian capital of Delhi, took off his clothes after Devraj Ghimire, Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR) did not allow him to speak.

Ghimire warned him that “action would be taken if he did not behave politely in the HoR meeting.

“I am ready to become a martyr for speaking against corruption,” said Singh before taking off his clothes.

Ghimire asked him to take care of “parliamentary dignity and decorum”.

Singh, however, refused to listen to any of the requests by the Speaker and began taking off his clothes.

Reacting to this, some lawmakers have demanded a medical test of Singh, who left the House after the episode.

This was the first-ever such incident to have happened in the history of Nepal’s Parliament.

Continue Reading

World

Woman injured following train station can explosion in Tokyo

Published

on

Woman injured following train station can explosion in Tokyo

Tokyo: A woman was injured following a coffee can exploding and splashing her with the contents at a train station in northern Tokyo, local media and police said on Monday.

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, what was believed to be a can of coffee exploded just before 4:00 p.m. (local time) at Nishiarai Station in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward.

The police received an emergency call from an employee at the station operated by private railway operator Tobu Railway following the explosion, saying, “There was a sound like an explosion or a burst.”

The can was placed near a ticket vending machine and following its explosion doused the woman aged in her 20s or 30s in its liquid contents, Xinhua news agency reported.

As a result of the explosion and the contents hitting the woman, she said her forehead had been hurt and she had felt the heat from the liquid.

The police have since recovered the suspicious can and an investigation is underway as to the cause of the explosion and the exact contents contained in the suspicious can.

Continue Reading

World

Indian-American doctor indicted for sexually assaulting patients

Published

on

Indian-American doctor indicted for sexually assaulting patients

New York: An Indian-origin primary care physician in US’ Georgia has been accused of sexually assaulting four of his female patients during routine check-ups over a 12-month period.

Rajesh Motibhai Patel, 68, was indicted last week on multiple counts of violating his patients’ constitutional right to bodily integrity while acting under colour of law and for engaging in unwanted sexual contact, a Department of Justice release said.

According to information presented in court, between 2019 and 2020, Patel, a physician at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Decatur, allegedly assaulted four of his female patients by touching them improperly during routine exams. Investigators believe that Patel may have victimised additional patients.

“Patel allegedly sexually abused his female patients and violated his oath to do no harm to patients under his care,” US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said.

“Veterans and their families expect and deserve the highest quality of healthcare delivered in a safe and accountable setting,” Veteran Affairs Inspector General Michael J. Missal said.

He said that the department has been cooperating the law enforcement to ensure the safety of patients.

Continue Reading

World

China wants ‘new fields’ of cooperation with Pakistan military

Published

on

China wants ‘new fields’ of cooperation with Pakistan military

Beijing:  China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu on Monday told Pakistan’s Navy Chief Amjad Khan Niazi that their militaries, including their navies, should “expand into new fields of cooperation” to bolster the capability of the two neighbours in safeguarding security in the region, Pakistan media reported.

Ties between the two militaries stretch back years, with their navies and air forces holding bilateral exercises in each other’s territory.

Shangfu told Niazi, who was visiting Beijing, that the two countries’ military relationship was a key part of bilateral ties, Geo News reported.

“The two militaries should expand into new areas of exchanges, create new high points of cooperation to continuously enhance their ability to deal with all sorts of risks and challenges, and jointly maintain the security interests of the two countries and of the region,” said Li, according to a statement on China’s Ministry of National Defence website.

Niazi’s visit comes after Zhang Youxia, Vice-Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, said in late April that the Chinese military is willing to build a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, Geo News reported.

“Chinese military is willing to work with the Pakistani military to further deepen and expand practical cooperation, continuously push mil-to-mil relationship to a higher level, and jointly safeguard the common interests of the two countries, as well as the regional peace and stability,” General Zhang said during a meeting with Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir.

Continue Reading

World

China using its currency to insulate against future sanctions

Published

on

China using its currency to insulate against future sanctions

Beijing:  In the wake of sanctions on Russia, China has pushed to conduct more trade using the yuan in an effort to reduce its reliance on the dollar, a UK newspaper reported.

In the last year, a drive to insulate China’s economy from dollar-based sanctions has emerged as possibly the most important incentive for decoupling from the dollar, as China looks to prepare for the possibility of conflict with Taiwan.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the most powerful tools for inflicting economic harm on Moscow was to essentially cut the country off from transactions based on US dollars, limiting its ability to trade with other countries, The Guardian reported.

But as well as punishing the Kremlin, there has been an unintended winner from West’s sanctions regime: the Chinese yuan. Last year the share of Russian imports paid for in yuan rose from 4 to 23 per cent. In February the yuan overtook the dollar as the most traded currency on the Moscow exchange for the first time in its history.

China’s push to boost the internationalisation of its currency predates the war in Ukraine and although the yuan is still far behind the dollar in terms of global activity, between March 2021 and March 2023 its share of the trade finance market — the multi-trillion dollar ecosystem that underpins 80 per cent of world trade — more than doubled, according to data from Swift, an interbank messaging platform, The Guardian reported.

China is also encouraging other countries to adopt the yuan for international transactions. Argentina and Brazil recently reached agreements to pay for Chinese imports in yuan rather than US dollars.

In April Bangladesh announced that it had approved a payment in yuan worth $318 million to settle part of a Russian loan that had been used to finance a nuclear power plant development. It is a rare example of the yuan being used for an international transaction that does not involve China, The Guardian reported.

In March, a Chinese company used yuan to buy 65,000 ton of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from TotalEnergies, a French multinational, the first time that China’s currency has been used in an international LNG transaction.

Beijing does not want to be dependent on the use of dollars for essential imports, so this is a key step in ensuring China’s energy security, The Guardian reported.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertis-With-us
Advertisement Advertis-With-us

Trending