KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 12: Following a prolonged delay of 67 days, the board meeting of the Millenium Challenge Account Nepal Development Board (MCA-Nepal) was convened on November 27. The very delay had much to do with Khadga Bahadur Bista, CEO of MCA-Nepal. He was unwilling to call any meeting because of the lack of progress in moving the contract process of transmission lines forward.
Be that as it may, the board meeting was focussed on another issue: canceling contracts for the transmission line project under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact without informing the board president and the finance minister.
The MCC-Nepal scrapped the contracts on October 12 when Dr. Prakas Saran Mahat was in Morocco to take part in a meeting. But he later came to know about this move from the media and rebuked Bista for it. President of the MCA-Nepal, Dr. Krishna Hari Pushkar (also the Finance Secretary) was also irked by HIM for this reason)
Rejection of sloppy work plan
During the board meeting, the CEO of the MCC-Nepal was first asked why he did not inform the concerned parties before cancelling the project. In response, he tried to justify the cancellation by citing contract-related directives but finally admitted the mistake.
The second question to him was,”What is your plan regarding the new contracts for constructing transmission lines”? He replied by presenting a work plan that talks about starting a process for a new contract in July 2024 and completing it by November 24.
If to follow this sloppy plan, the transmission line project will be extremely delayed. As such, the board meeting immediately rejected it and directed Bista to come up with another work plan to execute the project at the soonest.
Warning of Ghising
According to a board member of MCC-Nepal taking part in the meeting, Kulman Singh Ghising was also not happy with Bista like Dr. Mahat and Dr. Pushkar. But the concerns of Ghising were different from that of the other two. According to him, if Nepal does not construct the 18 km-long transmission lines connecting the bordering areas with India immediately, it will not only unable to sell power to India. Such losses come from the inability of Nepal to sell power to India and the compulsion to pay penalty (to India).
The southern neighbour is poised to complete the 100 km-long Butwal-Gorakhpur transmission lines by December 2025 as per the Inter-Country Transmission Service Agreement( ITSA) reached between Nepal and India. In case the NTA on its part fails to construct the needed transmission lines within this timeframe, it will not only be unable to export power to India but also be obliged to pay the set penalty.
Singh warns the large volume of financial losses of the NTA amounts to jeopardizing the investments of the general public in the hydropower-related shares and the banks and financial institutions in the hydel sector
