Former ministers ask govt to halt upgrade

Senior leaders representing major political parties except UCPN (Maoist) have urged the government to immediately withdraw the decision to upgrade the capacity of Upper Trishuli 3 ‘A’ Hydropower Project.
Leaders, including central committee member of Nepali Congress (NC) Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, former energy minister and central committee member of NC Prakash Sharan Mahat, politburo members of CPN-UML Gokarna Bista and Surendra Pandey and senior leader of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani met the chairman of the interim election government Khil Raj Regmi at Singha Durbar on Thursday afternoon to exert pressure on the government to withdraw upgrade decision.
The leaders in a memorandum to Regmi have requested him to do the needful to stop implementation of the upgrade decision. The leaders have also said kickbacks were involved in the upgrade decision.
Responding to the group of leaders, Regmi assured that the government would investigate if there had been financial irregularities in the run up to the upgrade decision. “I have already asked the concerned authorities to take necessary steps to investigate the issue and halt the upgrade if any irregularities are found,” Dr Mahat said quoting Regmi.
In the six-point memorandum, the leaders have argued why the project should not be upgraded. “The project’s upgrade is not in the interest of the country,” reads the memorandum. “Upgrading the project’s capacity will further deepen the load-shedding problem in the country.”
Upper Trishuli 3A is a run of the river project being developed by the Nepal Electricity Authority with China Gezhouba Group Company Limited as contractor. The Exim Bank of China has provided soft loan of US$ 89 million for the project.