Power cut hours down

KATHMANDU, March 27: In a move that would give a huge sigh of relief to the people reeling under power cut for up to 84 hours a week, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) on Friday decided to reduce load-shedding hours by 14 hours a week.



As per the decision, there will be no power cut from 10 pm to 5 am. The decision was taken also keeping in view the ongoing SLC examinations. [break]



"We had said last year that we will not let the load-shedding hours exceed 12 hours a day," Minister for Energy Prakash Sharan Mahat said. He added, "The decision has been made for the advantage of the SLC students as well."



The System Operations Department of NEA has informed that the 12-hour-a-day power-cut will gradually go down from now on as water level in the rivers keeps rising with rise in snow-melting.



"There has been slight increase in the water level in the rivers due to the melting of snow," Sher Singh Bhat, Director of department, told myrepublica.com.



Except for the Kulekhani Hydroelectric Project, which is a storage type project, all the other hydro projects in the country are built on run-of-river model.



"Although we cannot say for sure by how many hours the load-shedding will be curtailed, but certainly the power cut hours will not increase," he said.




NEA has, however, not made any change in the present load-shedding schedule. "There will not be any formal change in the current power cut schedule as we do not know whether the rise in water level is of permanent nature," he added.



The valley residents are already experiencing less power cut since past three days.



akanshya@myrepublica.com

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