“The JMCWR meeting, which will take place one or two weeks after the JCWR, will initiate the roadmap for the Detailed Project Report of Pancheshwar,” Dilli Bahadur Singh, the project manager of the Pancheshwar Multi-Purpose Project (PMPP), told myrepublica.com. He added, “It seems that both the meetings will take place in October now.”
Asked to comment, Energy Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat said that the ministry is preparing to hold the JCWR “soon.”
“We are working toward finalizing the date for JCWR,” Mahat said.
Nepal has accorded “high priority” to the PMPP and it was also taken up during Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal´s India visit. The joint-statement issued by the two sides said: In order to accelerate the implementation of te PMPP, the two prime ministers directed the JMCWR and JCWR to expedite the finalization of ToR for PDA and the Detailed Project Report of the Project.
“It is clear by now the government has accorded high priority to Pancheshwar as it was taken up during the PM´s India visit,” Singh further said, adding, “The government and all senior leaders of the major political parties seem convinced about the need for expatiating this project.” Singh had made a detailed presentation of the financial report of the project to the prime minister and other leaders ahead of the prime minister´s visit.
Nepal is bearing an annual loss to the tune of Rs 45.88 billion just from the electricity generation side of the PMPP and another Rs 5.69 billion from irrigation.
“We haven´t got any response from the Ministry of Energy so far regarding the finalization of the JCWR date,” Apoorva Srivastava, the spokesperson of the Indian Embassy told myrepublica.com.
India had initially proposed September 1-2 for the JCWR meeting and September 3-4 for the JMCWR meeting. It was decided in March that the ministerial meeting would be held in New Delhi. The Indian side proposed the following dates one and half months after that.
akanshya@myrepublica.com
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