India, Nepal agree on Water, power sharing deals

Giving a fresh boost to bilateral cooperation in water resources and power sectors, India and Nepal on Wednesday agreed on a slew of decisions relating to projects on common rivers and cross-border electricity trade. A meeting of the Water Resources Ministers of the two countries agreed to expedite the setting up of Pancheshwar Development Authority (PDA) at the earliest for implementation of the Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project and speed up the completion of detailed project of Sapta Kosi High Dam Multipurpose Project and Sun Kosi storage-cum-diversion scheme by February next year. A joint statement issued after the meeting held under the aegis of Joint Ministerial Commission on Water Resources (JMCWR) took note of the concerns of Nepal regarding payment of compensation for land and damage of crops and the meeting directed the Joint Committee on Water Resources (JCWR) to look into the problem. The Share Holders' Agreement for the Nepal portion of the 400 KV Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar cross-border line is being expedited by Nepal and the meeting noted that the short-term strengthening scheme to facilitate import of 75 MW additional power by Nepal over the existing transmission links would be completed in the next six months. The meeting agreed to explore the possibility of expediting the strengthening the work for export of some quantum of power to electricity-deficit Nepal at the earliest and to expedite the implementation of medium-term strengthening work for additional power supply to Nepal, according to the statement. The meeting recommended that finalisation of the draft memorandum of understanding on cross-border interconnection for power trade agreement received from Nepal including a second cross border transmission line for joint development be expedited. Indian Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and his Nepalese counterpart Bogati and Shri Yadav led their respective delegations at the meeting which was also attended by Nepalese Water Resources Minister of India's Bihar state Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and senior officials of three Indian states Paschimbanga, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. All the four Indian states share the long and porous border with Nepal.