PARBAT: Prime Minister KP Oli inaugurated the Khurkot-Dana sub-station constructed at Khurkot of Kushma Municipality-2 and Annapurna rural Municipality-3 of Myagdi district today.
This is the second-largest sub-station in the country.
The Prime Minister inaugurated the 220-132 KV Kushma sub-station and the 220 KV Kushma-Dana transmission line as well as the 220-132-33 KV Dana sub-station, virtually.
Minister for Energy, Water Resources and irrigation Top Bahadur Rayamajhi was however present at the program venue itself.
Addressing the program, PM Oli said the country was becoming prosperous in the power sector and it has reached a state where it can now export electricity with the load-shedding or electricity outage becoming a thing of the past. He said works are underway on the project so as to export electricity around the year.
East-West Railway to be operated soon
Stating that Nepal would be capable of earning income by selling electricity to neighboring countries once the projects currently under construction are completed, the Prime Minister directed the authorities concerned to complete the under-construction projects within the stipulated time.
He shared that preparations were on for Nepal itself to produce the electricity required for the country and to export excess power during the monsoon to India and Bangladesh within a year or two.
Noting that a lot of progress has been made with regards to expansion of road transport, construction of bridges and suspension bridges, replacing the rope bridge (tuin) with suspension bridges and operation of railway service in the country, PM Oli reiterated that preparations were also going on to operate the East-West Railway soon.
He said compensation and the reconstruction of damages caused by the flood at Dhorpatan of Baglung and in various places of Annapurna, Myagdi in the last monsoon would be seriously addressed.
42 thousand megawatts electricity to be produced in 20 years
On the occasion, Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Rayamajhi said infrastructures have been constructed for producing 42 thousand megawatts power within the next 20 years in Nepal.
Stating that there was the problem of electricity consumption rather than its production, he said there was much need for consumption of electricity in a large amount. He recalled that a 99-point master plan had been made for the development of the energy sector when Oli was the Prime Minister and he was the Energy Minister in 2015, and works were being carried out in the energy sector one after the other now on the basis of that master plan.
The Energy Minister said the past tendency to occupy the power projects and not to carry out their construction has been put to an end, and the government was now moving ahead with the policy of ‘take or pay’.
He further said that the government has the policy of slapping fine in case the electricity developers fail to complete the project in the stipulated time and to purchase the power generated by them if they completed the project on time.
On a different note, Minister Rayamajhi, who is also the Standing Committee Member of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), said it was unfortunate that some people were taking to the street after not allowing the Prime Minister with majority support to carry out the government’s works.
He stressed moving ahead taking a fresh mandate of the people for the protection of the national interest.
Gandaki province Minister for Industry, Tourism, Forests and Environment, Bikas Lamsal, then Constituent Assembly member Kalpana Chapagain, former lawmaker Padam Giri, Chief District Officer Shambhu Prasad Regmi, among the speakers, spoke on the importance of the sub-station and the transmission line inaugurated today.
On the occasion, Acting Executive Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), Hitendra Dev Shakya had briefed about the Kushma-Dana substation and the transmission line project.
The project that started on 30 May 2016 should have been completed on 31 May 2020, but was delayed. Still, three percent of works on the project remain to be completed. JV of Tata Project and Chint Electric Company had been awarded the contract for construction of the Kaligandaki Transmission Corridor Project.
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