Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: The government has decided to scrap the permits of 38 hydropower projects with a capacity of 1,388 MW that have been in zero progress for a long time by signing Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). A high-level committee formed by the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation to review the status of the licenses issued by the Department of Electricity Development in accordance with the government’s 100-point Governance Reform Action Plan (100-point Governance Reform Action Plan) has suggested to the Ministry to identify such projects and cancel the licenses.
The committee has prioritized 15 projects with a capacity of 220 MW with overall progress above 50 per cent during the five years of obtaining the license. Likewise, 131 projects with a capacity of 5,642 MW that have achieved close to 50 per cent progress in five years have been included in the list of encouragement to be encouraged.
Likewise, 38 projects with a capacity of 1,124 MW that have been working but have not been able to meet the target due to various reasons have been included in the list of facilitators to complete the projects at the earliest. However, the government has recommended taking action against 75 projects with a capacity of 4,121 MW in the list of problematic projects in the same period.
The budget statement for the fiscal year 2083/84 states that the license of the projects that have PPA but have not started construction will be canceled. This paves the way for taking action against the projects that do not work for a long time after taking permission.
According to the study committee, the Department of Electricity Development has recommended scrapping 11 projects with a capacity of 169 MW that had taken production license before 2076 BS but have not made any progress so far.
The committee has recommended to initiate the scrapping process as per Clause 8 of the Electricity Act, 2049 BS as the project did not comply with the conditions of obtaining the generation license and did not work as per Rule 21 of the Electricity Regulations, 2050.
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