New feeder line for Butwal Industrial Estate

BUTWAL, Jan 14 :

Local industrialists have heaved a sigh of relief after the government arranged a new electricity feeder line at the Butwal Industrial Estate.

They are hopeful that industries in the estate will not have to see power interruption due to trip switch problem and low voltage.

Though the government had mooted the plan to build a two-kilometer feeder line for the estate back in 2008, the project was delayed due to various factors including problem in getting forest clearance. The new feeder line has been connected from the Jogikoti-based grid of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

"The new feeder has ended frequent power outages due to low voltage and trip switch problem," Ganesh Prasad Adhikari, president of Butwal Industrial Estate Industries Association, told Republica.

Officials of NEA´s Butwal office said industries in the estate can now receive up to receive 20 MW of electricity. Earlier, they could get only up to 2 MW.

The new feeder line project was completed with an investment of Rs 5.9 million.

As the new feeder line is segregated from other transmission lines that supplies power to Palpa and Gulmi, officials say power supply from this line is more reliable. "Now onwards, there won´t be power outage in the industrial estate even if there are technical problems in other transmission lines," added Adhikari.

At present, the estate is facing power cut from 5 am till 3 am.

Saying that power cut was affecting industrial production, local industrialists have urged the government to arrange uninterrupted power supply at the estate. Til Prasad Bhattarai, former president of Butwal Industrial Estate Industries Association, said they have urged NEA to eliminate load-shedding during nighttime.

In the lack of regular power supply, industries had been using diesel generators to produce energy which is four times costlier than the energy supplied by NEA. This, in turn, had been affecting competitiveness of these industries.

Source: Republica