NEA calls new bids for Koshi-hit towers

THIRA L. BHUSAL
KATHMANDU, Nov 17

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has decided to re-invite tenders to build electricity towers along the cross-border Kataiya-Duhabi transmission line between Nepal and India. Nepal can import 90 MW of electricity from India once the towers, demolished by the Koshi River in August, are restored.

An NEA board meeting on Monday directed the public utility to immediately re-invite the tenders as one of the two companies vying for the project was technically disqualified. NEA could not proceed as there was just a single company left, said NEA officials.

"This time [after re-tender] we will select a builder even if there is only one company bidding for it," Yugal Kishor Shah, General Manager, Transmission and System Operation at NEA, told The Post.

NEA regulation allows it to select a builder even if there is a single company bidding for the project after re-inviting the tender, he said.

Five towers along the cross-border transmission line had collapsed due to the flood.
The river demolished the towers when it breached its embankment at West Kusaha in Sunsari district on Aug. 18 and flowed eastward changing its previous course. Nepal had been importing 50 MW electricity through the same transmission line which was stopped after the Koshi havoc.
NEA had signed an agreement with PTC India Limited to import additional 60 MW electricity during the Power Summit-2008 in Kathmandu in September. Of that, 20 MW will be imported from Tanakpur transmission line starting Dec. 16, according to Shah.

But Nepal has been unable to import 40 MW electricity as per the new agreement. Thus, the demolition of towers had disrupted 90 MW [50 MW as per the previous arrangement and 40 MW as per the new agreement] of electricity supply.

"The restoration of towers will be completed in about two months after construction starts," said Shah.
According to NEA officials, not many tenders have been received owing to the challenging nature of the task. It needs special expertise and equipment, which only a few construction companies in Nepal have. The foundation of some of the towers go as deep as 30 metres below the riverbed.
The work will be easier if the task of rerouting the Koshi River to its previous course is completed early. The government of India, which has mobilised a contractor to re-route the river, has said the task will be completed by mid-December. Indian officials have also said they will plug the breached section of the embankment by March end.

Meanwhile, NEA has also requested the Indian authority to make arrangements for setting up emergency towers, which can be done only by the Indian side. An Indian team is in Nepal to study the technical feasibility of the emergency arrangement.

"If viable, the work will be completed on a fast-track mode," Shah added.

THE KATHMANDU POST

Fast-track programme to light up Rukum

THIRA L. BHUSAL

KATHMANDU, Nov 11

The government is all set to implement a programme to bring electricity within a year to all households in Rukum district, the one-time hotbed of the Maoist insurgency, primarily through micro/mini hydropower projects and solar power.

After translating the idea of 'ujyalo [lighted up] Rukum' into practice, the same model will

be applied to many other districts across the county, officials said.

Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) under the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MoEST) has prepared a Special Micro/Mini Hydro Development Programme in Rukum district to translate the government plan into action.

Finance Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, in this year's budget, announced a special programme with a view to provide electricity to every household in the district. He had also proposed to mark the current fiscal year as the "Year of Alternative Energy".

The proportion of households having electricity in the district was 7.7 percent as of 2004, ranking Rukum 62nd among the 75 districts in the country. The total number of households in the district is 33,000 and the total population slightly more than 203,332 as of the then projection for 2005.

The government is going to kick-off the programme at a two-day function at November-end at the district headquarters. Ministers, political leaders, top officials, consultants, experts and local stakeholders will attend the function.

AEPC, an executive agency at the central level, will work in close coordination with the district development committee.

Energy Sector Assistance Program (ESAP) under AEPC has identified about 50 potential micro hydro projects in Rukum. The programme can be implemented immediately at 30 of the identified sites, according to Bharat Raj Poudel, monitoring officer at AEPC. Technical teams will explore the possibility of additional such projects within a month. The majority of the projects will be completed by June, 2009 and the rest by the end of 2009, Poudel said.

The government will provide electricity to some households through the solar power if the houses are isolated.

As the programme to be executed in Rukum is a test case, the projects in the district will be completed on a fast track system, said Dr. Govind Raj Pokharel, executive director of AEPC.

The hydro projects under the programme will produce up to 500 KW power. More than 70 percent of the projects will generate from 5 to 70 KW each, according to Poudel. The average cost of producing 1 KW of electricity from a micro hydro project is estimated to be about Rs. 250,000 and this power can be distributed to 10 households, bringing the average cost for each household to around Rs. 25,000.

Each household will get Rs. 10,000 as financial support from the government with the possibility of this being increased to Rs. 15,000 in the near future. Locals will make contributions worth Rs. 5,000 each through volunteer work. "The consumers can arrange the remaining Rs. 5,000 through the budgets of their district development committees, VDCs, or on their own," Poudel elaborated.

The programme also has a component for popularising the use of improved stoves and biogas plants so that the electric lights will be more bright in a smokeless environment.

THE KATHMANDU POST

Koshi diversion to be ready by mid-December

THIRA L BHUSAL

KATHMANDU, Nov 7

The diversion of Koshi river into Koshi barrage through a channel being excavated along its previous course will be completed by Dec. 15. Koshi breached its embankment at West Kushaha in Sunsari district on Aug. 18 and travelled eastward, affecting more than 60,000 people in Nepal and 3.2 million in the Indian state of Bihar.

High level Indian officials visiting Nepal after inspection of Koshi areas assured Nepali officials that Koshi water would be redirected to its previous course by Dec. 15.

Workers from a construction company deployed by the Indian government have been excavating a channel to re-route Koshi to its previous course. The Indian government on Nov. 2 reached an agreement with the company in this connection. The company had been given 45 days with effect from the agreement date to complete the work.

Starting Wednesday, the Indian team led by Chairman of Central Water Commission of India A.K. Bajaj was on a two-day field visit to areas affected by Koshi flooding. Senior officials and experts from the Ministry of Water Resources of Nepal had accompanied them during the visit. Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood also accompanied the team.

Nepali officials had requested the Indian side to speed up repair and construction work. In response, the Indian officials said that they would speed up the work in about a fortnight's time when the water level in the river will subside significantly, according to Shital Babu Regmee,Joint Secretary at the Ministry. Regmee was also part of the inspection team.

"The Indian side expects the water level to subside to around 10,000 cusecs [one cubic foot per second] in the river in a couple of weeks," Regmee said.

After diverting the water toward the barrage, the Indian team will begin plugging the breached portion of the embankment. The work is expected to be completed by March end.

Indian officials said repair of the breached embankment was planned for March as the discharge in Koshi is at its lowest level during that month.

The primary objective of the visit of the high-level Indian officials is to chart out long-term remedial measures to avert the perennial problem "although the Indian team will come up with the long- term solutions only after analysing the data collected during the visit" said Regmee.

THE KATHMANDU POST

Maoists, UML to revise ToR

UML for 8-member special committee

THIRA L. BHUSAL
KATHMANDU, Nov 3

The CPN (Maoist) and CPN-UML have agreed to make amendments and corrections to the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC).

Opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) and the ruling UML had opposed a Maoist move to effect some amendments in the ToR. They said the government made the amendments contrary to the past pacts and understandings reached among the then Seven-Party Alliance (SPA).

Maoists, UML and the NC will discuss the issue, according to Minister for Information and Communication Krishna Bahadur Mahara. "We decided to talk over the issue of necessary amendments and corrections to the ToR," Mahara said while emerging from three-hour-long talks of the High Level Joint Mechanism of the two parties held at Singhadurbar on Monday evening.

Senior UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari, one of the participants in the talks, said they raised the issue as they found that the ToR prepared by the government deviated from past agreements.

"We insisted there should be no deviation from past agreements and understandings," Adhikari told the Post.

The joint mechanism was formed by the Maoists and UML on Sunday. Senior Maoist leader Mohan Baidya leads the Maoist team while the UML team is headed by its former General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal. The Joint Mechanism was formed with a view to resolve differences between the two parties and to give suggestions to the parties for running the government.

The Cabinet on Oct. 25 finalised the ToR specifying the jurisdiction of the recently formed five-member AISC headed by Deputy Prime Minister Bam Dev Gautam. AISC will prepare a report providing details on integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants.

NC leaders have said that the government ToR violates the spirit of the seven-point agreement reached among the then SPA on June 25. The ToR delegates powers to AISC to set up separate norms for the integration of Maoist combatants instead of following the established criteria for recruitment by the security forces as per the past agreement.

During the talks, the UML leaders proposed to provide for two representatives from each of the four parties -- CPN (Maoist), NC, UML and Madheshi Janadhikar Fourm -- on the AISC. Currently, the committee has five members-two from the Maoists and one each from NC, UML and the Forum. The NC has refused to join the committee, demanding representation equal to the Maoists. "I proposed to make it an eight-member committee ensuring two members from each of the four parties so that the committee can immediately start its work," Adhikari said.
The leaders from the two parties agreed to set criteria with regard to making political appointments to constitutional bodies and other entities.

The government is yet to make appointments to vacant posts at the Public Service Commission, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority and the Office of the Comptroller-General, among others.

Earlier, the government also announced it would form some high level bodies including the Peace Comm-ission, State Restructuring Commission, Commission on Indigenous and Ethnic Communities and Land Reform Commission. The decision will also cover appo-intment of members and heads of such commissions. "This was proposed with a view to consensus in selecting experts for such appointments," Adhikari said.

The two parties also decided to immediately send the committees, formed on Sunday to probe the growing indicence of tension between the youth wings of the two parties in the last couple of months, to the districts to study the problem. The committees are to submit their reports within seven days.

The Maoists and UML on Sunday formed joint committees to study the incidents of clashes between the Maoist youth wing Young Communist League (YCL) and the UML's Youth Force in Taplejung and Dhading districts. In September, one Maoist was killed in Taplejung district by UML cadres. In October, a YCL cadre from Dhading district was killed in a clash with the Youth Force.

Senior leaders from the two parties have instructed their committee members to hold joint meetings with representives from Maoist state committees and the UML's zonal committees to resolve disputes at the local level.

THE KATHMANDU POST

Indian team to arrive Nov 4

BY THIRA L. BHUSAL
KATHMANDU, Nov 1

A high-level technical team from India will arrive in Kathmandu on Nov. 4 to study the devastation caused by the Koshi floods and prepare a long-term plan to avert the perennial problem.

The Koshi burst its embankment at West Kushaha in Sunsari district on Aug. 18, subsequently affecting more than 60,000 people in Nepal and 3.2 million in the Indian state of Bihar.

The Indian team led by Chairman of Central Water Commission of India A.K. Bajaj will visit Koshi-ravaged areas for two days starting from Nov. 5. The visit will be followed by discussions with senior Nepali officials and experts from the Ministry of Water Resources, according to Joint Secretary Shital Babu Regmee at the Ministry.

Regmee, Director General of the Department of Irrigation Madhu Sudan Paudel, and Deputy Director General of the Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention Khom Raj Dahal, among others, will take part in talks with the visiting Indian team.

The visiting Indian team will find durable solutions for Koshi embankment protection, according to the agreement reached at the Joint Committee on Water Resources (JCWR) talks that concluded on Oct. 1 in Kathmandu.

The bilateral talks headed by Water Resources Secretaries from both countries recommended that a high level technical team from India visit Nepal for a follow-up discussion in the first week of November to find a long-term solution to avert the Koshi hazard.

During bilateral talks, the two sides expected the flow of water from the breached embankment to stop by the middle of December and the afflux bund, the raised embankment built upstream of the barrage, to be restored to its original section by the end of March 2009.

The entire responsibility of operation and maintenance of Koshi Barrage and embankment in the Koshi area falls on India, according to the Nepal-India Koshi Treaty-1954.

THE KATHMANDU POST