Nov 14, 2008

World - Indian power to light Nepalese homes from Dec 1

New Delhi, Nov 13 (PTI) India and Nepal today reviewed the progress of a power project under which New Delhi would provide its Himalayan neighbour 60 MW of power, beginning from December 1. Initially, India would supply 20 MW of power from Talang in Bihar to Nepal.

"Later, another 40 MW of power would be supplied through the transmission links in Bihar," Minister of state for Power Jairam Ramesh told PTI here after meeting Nepal's Water Resources and Power minister Bishnu Paudel here. Emergency restoration programme has been launched to repair some of the transmission links in Bihar as well as Nepal that were washed away in the recent floods after river Kosi changed its course.

These links would carry power supply from India to Nepal. India would supply 60 MW of power as part of an understanding reached between Power Trading Corporation and Nepal Electricity Authority recently.

With Nepal set to become a power exporting country by 2013, India has decided to increase the capacity of power transmission lines between the two countries from the present 66 kw and 132 kw to 400 kv. "While today Nepal is buying power from India, by 2013, it would be India which would purchase electricity from Nepal," said Ramesh, adding the transmission line improvement project will be implemented in the next two years at a cost of Rs 200 crore.

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