Trade unions of employees at NEA cut power supply to ministers' quarters

rade unions of employees at Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) cut power supply to ministers´ quarters in Pulchowk for two hours on Sunday as part of their protest against the NEA board´s decision to upgrade the capacity of the Upper Trishuli 3 ´A´ hydropower project from 60 to 90 MW.
“We will continue to cut power supply to the ministers´ quarters on Monday and Tuesday as well,” Ram Prasad Rimal, chairman of NEA Employees´ Union, told Republica.
All four trade unions of employees at NEA -- NEA Employees Association, NEA Employees Union, NEA Employees Council and Nepal National Employees Association - are protesting the decision.
The unions on Saturday turned away the NEA management´s proposal for talks. They reached the talk venue on Sunday only to find the coordinator of the board´s talk team absent.
“Our demand is clear. We won´t withdraw protest until the NEA board scraps its decision to upgrade capacity of the project,” added Rimal.
The run-of-the-river project, which is being developed by Chinese contractor China Gezhouba Group Company Limited, is courting controversy after the NEA board decided to upgrade the capacity by violating the existing rules.
Meanwhile, NEA employees staged pen down protest in NEA head office on Sunday.

NECT-HYM loses Kali Gandaki Gorge hydro project

The 164 MW Kali Gandaki Gorge hydroproject has slipped from the hands of NECT-HYM after it failed to get power generation license from the Department of Electricity Development (DoED).
The Department of Electricity Development (DoED) on Sunday wrote a letter to NECT-HYM, notifying it about the cancellation of its application for generation license.
“The company failed to demonstrate strong financial sources to develop the project. It also couldn´t prepare a satisfactory environment impact assessment (EIA) report for the project," Gokarna Raj Pantha, senior divisional engineer and spokesperson at the DoED, told Republica.
The company had also approached the department for project development agreement (PDA).
"But it hadn´t paid application fee for PDA negotiation,” Pantha said. “We can´t issue generation license before the EIA study is completed.”
The government decision to cancel application license for power generation has pushed the Rs 25 billion-project into uncertainty.
"We are hopeful that other genuine developers will come up with strong financial sources to develop the project," Pantha said.
The project based in Mustang and Myagdi districts needs to develop 155-km 220 kV transmission line to connect the power generated by it to the national grid.
"There developer has no proper plan for the transmission line as well," added Pantha.
Hydro Solution, a domestic firm, was supported to provide assistance to develop the project. Gyanendra Lal Pradhan, chairman of the Hydro Solution, said investors from India, USA and Canada are interested to put their money in the project.
As a part of discouraging the trend of holding license of hydropower projects but without intention of developing them, the government raised the survey and generation license fee in November.
“The upward revision in survey and generation lice
nse fee has helped us identify the genuine developers,” said Pantha