High PTA expectations from Modi visit
KATHMANDU, July 31:
It’s been over half a decade since Nepal has been lobbying vigorously for its own agenda for power-trading with India during bilateral talks and high-level political visits. And now a deal is finally expected to be inked with a southern neighbor whose foreign policy emphasis has shifted to prioritizing the neighboring countries.
Speaking at a discussion program Thursday on the topic, ‘Indo-Nepal power cooperation agreement draft’, Prakash Sharan Mahat, former energy minister and a leader of the Nepali Congress, said this time Nepal has an opportunity to deal with India at the political level rather than merely at the bureaucratic level as wonted.
Noting that Nepal was easily able to persuade the then Indian water resources minister to give his consent for the development of the Sikta Irrigation Project though the Indian bureaucracy was against it, Mahat said the “political leadership has a broader outlook”.
All the parties are closer to a consensus on signing a power trade agreement which will be a cornerstone for managing balanced seasonal variations and minimizing the acute power outages. But there is a strong argument that any other energy development deals should not be included within such an agreement.
Lack of needed preparations and divided views on the Indian proposal were the reasons for no progress during the Nepal-India joint commission (JC) meeting held on Saturday. The JC minutes merely stated that both sides will work out the contents of the PTA at the earliest.
The political parties say the PTA should be set out in clear and transparent terms and power export should be allowed only after fulfilling the domestic requirements. However, the parties in opposition and thinktanks want the agreement to be only about power trade and not be an umbrella agreement that includes ‘cooperation’.
UCPN (Maoist) water resources department chief Lila Mani Pokharel said power trade can be acceptable as long as national interests are safeguarded. He, however, questioned the validity of the energy demand forecast and the spill energy projections for the wet months, pointing out that eight-hour daily power outages still persist. He also clarified that there should be exports only after meeting domestic needs.
Pokharel also suggested giving up the mindset that the country can become rich by exporting a ‘raw material’ like electricity. “The proposed agreement should not be a replication of the Indian proposal for hydropower development with 100 percent Indian investment and as joint ventures,” Pokharel said adding that the government should claim value-added rights or downstream benefits from water discharged from high dams or storage power projects.
Pokharel also said that irrigation projects in the tarai will be affected by the Upper Karnali project. Therefore we should seek compensation. The 900 MW run-of-river project is being developed by GMR, an Indian private company. In addition, the government should claim a share of the value added from the project resulting from water regulated at any storage projects developed upstream in future.
In an interview to Republica published Thursday, Nepal’s former ambassador to India, Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, stressed the need to bridge the ideological divide among political parties and reach a national consensus before sitting for bilateral talks with the Indian prime minister and his delegation.
Noting that several projects and treaties have been signed in the past but nothing has been achieved, Thapa emphasized the need to create better understanding and build confidence instead of taking a piecemeal approach. He also suggested undertaking mega projects of national interest on the basis of broader consensus.
NEPAL ALSO HAS STAKE IN WATER
Former government officials, intellectuals and some political leaders also have the common view that the country should not merely look upon water as a source of hydropower but also reap downstream benefits.
Former energy secretary Dwarika Nath Dhungel said that India has interest in water regulated by large high-dam projects like Karnali, Chisapani and Saptakosi and Nepal should not be naïve enough to talk only hydropower. It should demand a stake in the downstream benefits also.
Former energy minister Prakash Chandra Lohani suggested safeguarding Nepal’s rights to different products and services deriving from water resources such as electricity, irrigation, flood control and water transportation.
Mahat also echoed Lohani, noting that the Naumure and Pancheshwor multipurpose projects could not materialize because value-added and downstream benefits became a bone of contention.
Regional connectivity
Mahat also said that the power trade agreement will be signed keeping in view regional connectivity and not limiting it to trade with India alone. He said that trading should be on equal terms.
The government has also floated a third cross-border transmission line from Lamki of Kailali to Raebaraili in Utter Pradesh, India. However, experts and political leaders have said that while connecting to India the line should first connect with the national grid and the India connection should ensure an effective regulating mechanism for the electricity flow.
About the contents of the PTA, private sector circles in Nepal have suggested adopting a multi-buyer and multi-seller model regulated by a joint regulating body of India and Nepal.
Experts rebuff ‘gift’ project idea
It seems the government of Nepal is trying to select a project to offer to India for development as a ‘gift’, but experts and political leaders have dismissed the idea and decried any piecemeal approach. The projects in question are Tamor, Arun III, Pancheshwar.
Mahat dislikes the idea of offering Arun III as a gift project, saying Nepal has already awarded the project and it is being built by an Indian government company. Nepal is to get 22 percent free energy and this free energy should not be converted into a soft loan model, he said, adding, “We can offer Budhi Gandaki, a reservoir project of 630 MW.”
Lohani is against stretching out the palm to India for any hydropower project during the Modi visit. “My party has its opinion on seeking a soft loan for the development of the Kathmandu-Nijgadh Fast Track; Nepal can itself develop the project for connecting the capital via an express highway with the tarai,” he said.
Source: Republica
