Indian
minister to address Nepal energy summit
Indo-Asian News
Service
Kathmandu,
Sep 22 (IANS) India's Minister of State for Commerce and Power
Jairam Ramesh will address an energy summit in Kathmandu Tuesday,
making it the first visit to Nepal by an Indian minister after
the formation of a Maoist-led government here.
Ramesh's
visit comes after Nepal's first Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa
Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' went on his first formal visit to
New Delhi this month, where he met the Indian business community
and urged it to invest in priority areas in Nepal, including
hydropower.
The
two-day Power Summit 2008 is being organized by PTC India,
Independent Power Producers' Association of Nepal and Nepal
India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI).
More
than 300 delegates from India, Nepal and other countries are
taking part in the summit, including leading Indian power
companies like Jindal, GMR, Athena, AES and the Satluj Jal
Vidyut Nigam.
The
summit aims to bring together relevant stakeholders and policy
makers from Nepal and India to discuss power markets and project
development, in the backdrop of the recent price hike in petroleum
products.
Though
Nepal has the potential to generate over 80,000 MW, its current
capacity is around 600 MW. The country is going through one
of the worst power crises with a 35-hour weekly power outage
and is seeking to buy an additional 50-60 MW from India to
tide over the crisis.
NICCI
president Arun Chaudhury blamed the "politicization of
the hydropower sector" for the delayed development. However,
he said, the industry was drawing hope from Prachanda's announcement
that he himself was heading an investment board that would
study new investment proposals.
In
his budget Friday, Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai pledged
to generate 10,000 MW of power in the next decade.
Indo-Asian
News Service
Prabuddha
Bharata>>>
Vedanta
Kesari>>>
Vedanta
Mass Media>>>
Kundalini Tantra>>>
Swami Gokulananda
"Some Guidelines to Inner Life">>>
|