Rs29b sought for Budhi Gandaki

KATHMANDU, JUL 13

The Ministry of Energy has urged the Finance Ministry to allocate Rs29 billion in the upcoming budget for the development of the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project. According to Energy Minister Radha Gyawali, the national pride project has not been able to make much headway due to lack of funds. The storage type project is expected to allow the country to get out of the energy crisis.

Despite being rich in terms of water resources, power outages are a sad fact in Nepal because there are no storage type projects to generate electricity during the dry months when the water flow in the rivers drop.

“The project needs Rs58 billion for resettlement and land acquisition alone,” said Gyawali, adding that the ministry had asked for half the amount to get the project off the ground. She said that the Finance Ministry seemed to be positive about the demand, and that the issue would be finalized on Monday, a day before the budget for the fiscal year 2015-16 is scheduled to be presented in Parliament.

According to Gyawali, the development of the energy sector is the backbone of the country’s economic sector, hence the Finance Ministry should increase the allocation for the ministry in the upcoming budget. “There are several areas where we need funds to initiate projects,” Gyawali said.

Source: The KaThmandu Post