The ministry said they will prepare a list of projects for injecting the funds, along with detailed features of the projects including financing analysis.

KATHMANDU, Jan 11: Ministry of Energy has received commitments of Rs 576 million for investment in hydropower projects within 28 hours of an open call notice of Monday.

A total of 9,165 individual have expressed commitment of Rs 551 million through the online portal while six companies alone have announced commitment of  Rs 24.6 million, till 4 pm on Tuesday, according to Basanta Raj Sharma, personal assistant (PA) to Minister for Energy Janardan Sharma. But the names of the individuals and companies have not been made public yet. The call for online application through the portal http://www.moenonline.moen.gov.np/login was announced at noon, Monday.

Launching the portal, Minister Sharma on Monday had appealed  for investment commitments in hydropower.

 Sharma has come up with an investment drive in hydropower under the slogan ‘Nepal’s water and people’s investment’. The minister had said that he came up with the idea  after finding genuine interest among members of the public as well as migrant workers in Malaysia and the Middle East to invest in hydropower.

“We will collect commitments and provide them choice of projects to inject their funds later,” Sharma  said. The ministry said they will prepare a list of projects for injecting the funds, along with detailed features of the projects including financing analysis. PA Sharma said that the name of those individuals and companies will be made public after a few days.

Minister Sharma had consulted institutions like the Employees’ Provident Fund and Nepal Telecom among others for investing in hydropower after he assumed office in August but he has not offered any projects to them yet. About a dozen such institutions had committed Rs 83 billion in cash immediately and about Rs 50 billion on an annual basis.

 
• ministry of energy
 
• call for hydropower investment
 
• rs 567m pledged