By Laxman Kafle/Gopal Chandra Subedi
Kathmandu, Feb. 8: Nepal’s electricity generation is increasing, but the pace of construction of transmission lines is all but at par with the power generation.
Although the government has given special priority to the construction of high capacity transmission lines with the aim of addressing the growing demand for energy and trading surplus energy, the working process has been hampered in lack of investment, obstruction by locals and lack of coordination among government agencies.

The government has been constructing the high-capacity transmission lines along the river corridor for decades, but they have not been completed in time. In lack of needed transmission lines, up to 600 MW of electricity went to waste last year when the consumers were facing power shortage at their homes.
In the experience of managing director of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Kul Man Ghising, completing the transmission lines is a hard nut to crack.

Construction of the transmission lines has started after decades analysing the country’s need, but there are problems between the governmental bodies, with the contractors, locals and the long-drawn judicial process, he said.

He said, “We have to wait for years to get permission to cut down the trees under the proposed transmission lines. Cases are filed in the court and stay orders are issued and we spend years to get final verdicts.”
Some of the transmission lines under construction which are in the final stages are facing problems. An interim order of the court has stopped the completion of the transmission line from Makwanpur to Bharatpur and from there to Bardaghat via Inaruwa and Dhalkebar in eastern Nepal.

But the court has not forwarded the case. According to project sources of the transmission line, construction of two towers in Dumkibas has been stopped by the Supreme Court’s order. No permission has been given to cut down community forest trees in the Makwanpur-Dhalkebar section.

The 132 kV Solu Corridor is also being charged between the two with such challenges. The 220 kV Trishuli Corridor has reached the stage of completion in the next one year.
The Kusma Dana section of Kaligandaki Corridor has come into operation while the Kusma Bharatpur section is expected to complete this year, said Ghising.
The NEA plans to carry out the construction of Khimti-Barhabesi-Lapsiphedi 400 kV transmission line by resolving the dispute.

The construction of a 312 km long 400 kV transmission line from Nanglebhare of Kathmandu to Butwal via Nuwakot Ratmate has not completed yet.
The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Nepal has decided to build this project with the support of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). However, the fate of the project is still uncertain as the MCC is yet to be endorsed by the parliament.

The government plans to start construction of economically feasible hydropower projects by 2040. As per this, a power grid plan has been made to develop an efficient and reliable transmission line network.
According to Anup Kumar Upadhyay, former secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, planning and implementation works are done a decade before considering the needs after decades.
But he has experienced that the implementation complications are causing a lot of problems. “In the past, there was pressure from leaders to have electricity in their electorate,” he said.

“First, there is pressure to get electricity in villages and leaders’ constituencies. And when the poles are erected, the same tell us not to install poles in those places, such double standard only creates problems,” he said.
Upadhyay said that the large capacity transmission lines were a must to make the power supply reliable and encourage the developers for the development of hydropower projects. “There is no alternative to transmission lines. We have to construct big transmission lines tomorrow even if we are unable to construct them today, he said.

At present, the installed capacity of hydropower in Nepal is about 2,000 MW. According to the Department of Electricity Development, around 216 hydropower projects with a capacity of 7,000 MW have already obtained construction license while 202 projects with a capacity of 15,000 MW have received survey license.
Despite the general perception that this statistic of power generation is enough, exports and energy entrepreneurs demonstrate a sense off shock.

Energy expert Gyanendra Lal Pradhan expressed fear that this figure could become a figure destroying the private sector.
“Where are the transmission and distribution lines to supply the generated electricity to the customers?” he questioned. “Nepal’s hydropower sector may disintegrate due to the politics on development infrastructure.”
He said that the transmission line should be constructed immediately with the help of an international grant.

MCC is crucial for the export of electricity and promotion of domestic consumption in Nepal. “If our electricity is not consumed, not only the promoters will be faced with losses, but also the public’s share investment and billions of investments of banks will go fruitless and the economy will be disrupted,” he said.

Stating that it was sad to make the MCC assistance project a contested issue in domestic politics, Pradhan said, “If this dispute stops road and power infrastructure projects, the situation will be dire. How to bring foreign investment, why to generate electricity by investing more, energy sector will go bankrupt.”

Looking at the government’s scheme, it is planned to connect the transmission line from each river basin to the international transmission line. For the exchange of electricity between Nepal and India, various projects have been taken forward to connect the north-south corridor within the country with the cross-border transmission line.

Ghising said that necessary preparations have been made for the construction of a 400 kV transmission line for exchanging electricity from east to west.
Upadhyay, Ghising and Pradhan are of the opinion that delaying the construction of any transmission line would surely affect the national economy.