Nepal, India sign long-term agreement on electricity export; Experts fears something ominous

KATHMANDU, JANUARY 4: Nepal and India have inked a long-term agreement on electricity export today. Secretaries of both countries signed the document in the presence of the Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Shakti Bahadur Basnet. With this, the bilateral power trade deal to export 10,000 megawatts of electricity from Nepal to India in the next ten years is said to have materialised. It was reached during Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s visit to India from 31 May to 3 June 2023.

However, according to experts, the very deal is skewed towards serving the ulterior motive of the southern neighbour. “The very motive is to capture the hydropower sector of the country. “No doubt, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has long supporting the hawks of New Delhi in this regard. The shady taking back of a big hydel project like West Seti from a Chinese company to give them to an Indian one

. After West Seti was acquired by the Chinese company Three Gorges in 2006, it was taken away from the company and handed over to an Indian company, NHPC Limited