Kathmandu. Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, has issued directives to the bodies concerned with a deadline to prepare a detailed action plan for structural reforms in energy and water resources sector, increase transparency and make its performance result-oriented. A 32-point directive has been issued covering multi-dimensional issues ranging from improvement in electricity market to strengthening of irrigation system. The ministry has assigned clear responsibility to the bodies concerned to implement all action plans within the stipulated timeframe. There will also be regular intensive monitoring. <\/p>\n
“This directive has been issued after a long homework and intensive discussions with the stakeholders, to strengthen the water resources and energy sector,” the minister said, adding, “The directive has not been issued only to show this, but on the basis of this, the roadmap of our policies, plans and programs will be prepared.” Therefore, I also instruct the subordinate bodies and employees to complete the work performance within the stipulated time frame and follow it up continuously. \u2019<\/p>\n
Minister Shrestha directed the Electricity Regulatory Commission to determine the wheeling charge required for the implementation of the ‘open access’ system within 30 days. This is expected to open the door to competitive power trading between the private and public sectors. Reservoir and pumped storage projects will have different tariff structures based on seasonal and peak demand, which will balance the generation and consumption management. <\/p>\n
The meeting also directed the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to submit a list of all PPA disputes and options to resolve them. Among the existing PPAs, directives have been issued to classify the projects that are in operation, delayed and at risk and submit a report with clear status. The decision is expected to boost investors’ confidence and help resolve the stalled projects. In order to attract the private sector to reservoir-based projects, the policy will be introduced to set the license period for such projects to 50 years. <\/p>\n
The Electricity Regulatory Commission, Electricity Generation Company and National Transmission Grid Company have been asked to submit a report within 30 days by identifying duplication and necessary aspects of improvement. Similarly, the Department of Electricity Development has been directed to make public the details of survey and construction licenses of all hydropower projects across the country within 60 days. This will include the license issuance date, progress, milestone and compliance status. Cure notices will be issued to companies that do not comply with the rules and new licenses will not be issued without review. <\/p>\n
A plan has also been put forward to establish a publicly accessible ‘License Performance Dashboard’ and update it monthly. Grid evacuation has been made mandatory precondition for the development of new hydropower projects. New construction license will be issued after Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and National Transmission Grid Company confirm the capacity of the transmission line and substation. <\/p>\n
For financial transparency, a detailed report on the process of collection and distribution of hydropower royalty should be made public. This will also ensure that the share received by the law has been properly transferred to the provinces and local levels. <\/p>\n
A new dimension of the energy sector will be set up as a carbon revenue unit that will set standards for registration, certification and benefit sharing of carbon trading projects. It is also expected to help reduce the cost of small projects. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) will jointly prepare a national demand and consumption plan. A long-term power export roadmap will be prepared by making Nepal Power Trading Company fully active. Giving priority to the use of new technology, an AI chatbot will be used 24 hours a day to solve consumer complaints and problems related to power outages. Similarly, research and development will be encouraged by forwarding the ‘Green Hydrogen’ pilot project. <\/p>\n
Similarly, a ‘hydrological series’ will be prepared by incorporating the changes in the river flow and the penalty system will be reviewed according to its impact on power generation. Implementation of river basin master plan, establishment of inter-country water resources unit, development of certified water and meteorological data system and groundwater monitoring program will be carried out. Groundwater management will be strengthened with digital surveillance system, especially in the Terai region. <\/p>\n
On the irrigation sector, special emphasis has been given to timely completion of national pride projects like Babai, Bheri-Babai diversion and Sikta. Diplomatic initiatives would be expedited with India for the construction of Mahakali Irrigation Project while the Sunkoshi-Marin project would be forwarded through the tender process. Provisions have been made to implement ‘Irrigation Service Fee’, implement agro-irrigation-industry integrated plan and prepare drought-resilient strategy for Tarai-Madhes region to make the irrigation system sustainable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu. Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, has issued directives to the bodies concerned with a deadline to prepare a detailed action plan for structural reforms in energy and water resources sector, increase transparency and make its performance result-oriented. A 32-point directive has been issued covering multi-dimensional issues ranging from improvementContinue reading “32-point directive issued on power market reform and strengthening of irrigation system”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-breaking-second-en","category-samachar-en"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/biraj-bhakta-shrestha.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70569,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70568\/revisions\/70569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/70566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}