Survey license of seven hydel projects scrapped

KATHMANDU, March 9:

The government has cancelled survey licenses of seven small scale hydropower projects with collective installed capacity of 30.1 megawatts for not paying survey license fee.

The hydropower projects that lost survey licenses include the 3 megawatts Roshi Khola (Kavre), 4.7 megawatts Bhuji Khola (Baglung), 6.3 megawatts Lower Jogmai (Ilam), 2.7 megawatts Yandeli Khola (Taplejung), 7.3 megawatts Lower Inwa (Taplejung), 3.1 megawatts Upper Maya Khola (Sankhusava) and 3 megawatts Lawa Khola (Morang).

The Department of Electricity Development (DoED) has decided to cancel the survey licenses of the projects after it didn´t receive the survey license fees from the developers on time. “There are other reasons as well but the major reason is survey license fee,” Gokarana Raj Pantha, senior divisional engineer at DoED told Republica.

The firms that were occupying survey licenses of the projects have been losing their licenses one after the other since the government increased the license fees in October 2012. “We have cancelled around 33 survey licenses in the last one month alone,” Pantha said. “Those projects have a collective installed capacity of 809 megawatts.”

The government had revised the survey license fees in order to discourage the practice among developers of holding licenses without making any efforts toward completing project works on time.

The hydropower survey licenses have been divided into six different categories as per the revision. The new rates for survey licenses are: Rs 1 million for 1-5 megawatts projects, Rs 2 million for 5 to 10 megawatts, Rs 3 million for 10 to 25 megawatts, Rs 4 million for 25 to 100 megawatts, Rs 5 million for 100 to 500 megawatts and Rs 6 million for hydropower projects of above 500 megawatts.

“The rates had been revised to identify genuine developers,” Pantha said. “DoED has felt that most of the license holders have failed to pay license fees on time after the revision of rates.”

According to Pantha, Premier Power Developer Limited had bagged the survey license for Roshi Khola, Amarawati Builders & Developers for Bhuji Khola, Echo W Energy Private Limited for Lower Jagmai, Shikhar Hydro Private Limited for Yandeli Khola and Lower Inwa Hydropower Limited for Lower Inwa. Similarly, the survey licenses of Upper Maya Khola and Lawa Khola were awarded to individuals.

“There are around 7 other projects which are going to lose survey licenses if they fail to pay fee within a week,” Pantha said.

Source: Republica