On February 24, 2022, India and Nepal agreed to line up a joint task force on a “proposal to construct a hydropower project” from investments of both countries. The task force as decided will have maximum of three members from both sides.
The agreement was signed at the 9th meeting of the Nepal-India Energy Secretary-Level Joint committee in Kathmandu. The meeting was co-chaired by Secretary of the Energy Ministry of India Alok Kumar and Secretary of Energy Ministry Debendra Karki from
What issues were discussed during the meeting?
During the meeting, either side discussed issues like Existing transmission lines between the 2 countries Under-construction and proposed interstate conductor Arun III hydropower and conductor and Interstate power trade. They also agreed to extend the capacity of energy being imported and exported using interstate 400 KV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur conductor. This 400 KV line will span over 140 kilometers, of which 20 kilometers are going to be in Nepal while the remaining 120 km are going to be in Indian territory. Arun-3 Hydro Electric Project Arun-3 Hydro Electric project could be a 900 MW run-of-river project, located on the Arun River in Eastern Nepal. Going deeper into the proposal we will see that the Government of Nepal and Sutlej Jal Vikas Nigam (SJVN) Limited had signed a memorandum of understanding for the project in 2008 to execute on a Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis for 30 years of a time period, which also include five years of the construction period.
What is Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT)?
BOOT stands for “build, own, operate, transfer”. it’s a public-private partnership (PPP) project model, wherein a private organization conducts an oversized development project under contract to a public-sector partner. during this model, the public-sector signs contracts with a personal developer, to style and implement an outsized project. Run-of-the-river Project Run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects are hydroelectric systems, which harvest energy from flowing water to get electricity. Such projects primarily use the natural rate of water to come up with power, instead of using the facility of water falling from a height.
Features of such projects
These projects are more cost-effective to create. they will be built over a shorter period of your time. It is believed that They would have a smaller environmental footprint when compared with the dams which have large amounts of water storage.