40 MW power added to national grid in first 8 months this FY

In the year when the budget was presented in the nine month and the capital spending remained low, one could hardly hope for greater infrastructure development.
Amid slow progress in infrastructure expansion, it was the hydropower sector that stood out this fiscal year. According to the Economic Survey 2012-13, 40 MW power was added to the national grid. The figure was at 8.49 MW last year, while it was at 7.72 MW the previous year.
The power added to the national grid this fiscal year was the production of projects promoted by the private sector, according to independent power producers (IPPs).
Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN) President Subarna Das Shrestha said IPPs could have contributed more had the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) adopted flexibility in the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). “The government’s reluctance to sign the PPA with developers and the scrapping of project licences have discouraged private players,” he said.
Despite the progress in power generation, expansion of transmission lines remained dismal, with just 70-km transmission lines developed this year. The total length of the transmission lines in the country has reached 1,987.4 km, according to the survey.
Shrestha said slow progress in the development of transmission lines has stood as a major bottleneck for the development of the hydropower sector, so the government should give priority to transmission lines development.
However, the government inability to present a timely budget has hit other infrastructure expansion. The fact that only 194 km of road network was added this year illustrates how political bickering over the budget hit infrastructure expansion.
According to the Economic Survey 2012-13, a total of 128 km of road was blacktopped during the period, while 41 km of gravel road and 25 km of dirt road were added to the country’s road network. With this, total lengths of black topped, gravel and dirt roads have reached 10,320 km, 5,828 km and 8,435 km, respectively.
Despite the slowdown in road expansion, the number of vehicles increased by a whopping 40 percent. This has increased pressure on roads, with the number of vehicles per km road reaching 61 by mid-March, up from 55 earlier. According to the survey, a total of new 142,427 vehicles were registered in the first eight months of the fiscal year.
As far as railway is concerned, a consultant has been appointed for conducting a detailed study for 135 km Simara-Bardibas section and Simara-Birgunj link under the Mechi-Mahakali Electric Railway Proejct, while a feasibility study has been completed for 77.28-km Kathmandu Metro Railway Project.
“Implementation of these projects will ease public transportation system, contribute to employment generation and accelerate national economic activities,” the report said.
The telecommunication sector also witnessed progress in terms of both quality and quantity. As per the report, the telephone penetration has reached 74 percent, with the number of subscribers increasing to 19.6 million in the first eight months of this fiscal. Similarly, the number of internet users reached 6.2 million — a 24 percent penetration.
src The kathmandu post