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West Seti Power Project

UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS | WEST SETI POWER PROJECT AND INDIA NEPAL TIES | 20TH JUNE | INDIAN EXPRESS

/ June, 2022, UPSC Daily Current Affairs

SYLLABUS SECTION: GS III (BILATERAL TIES)

WHY IN THE NEWS?

India will be taking over an ambitious hydropower project in Nepal — West Seti Power Project — nearly four years after China withdrew from it.

MORE DETAILS:

  • Nepal is rich in power sources with around 6,000 rivers and estimated potential for 83,000 MW
  • India has formally approached Nepal on many occasions, seeking preferential rights,
  • Over Nepali waters should it match offers coming from elsewhere.
  • India is view as a feasible market for Nepal, but there has been some uncertainty in Nepal over India’s inability to deliver projects on time.
  • The Mahakali treaty was sign back in 1996, to produce 6,480MW,
  • But India has still not been able to come out with the Detail Project Report.
  • The Upper Karnali project, for which the multinational GMR signed the contract, has not made any headway for years.
  • India has undertaken to harness or express intent to harness major rivers in the north.
  • Success in executing the 900-MW Arun Three project in eastern Nepal’s Sankhuwa Sabha, which is being execute by India’s Sutlej Vidhyut Nigam under a BOOT scheme, and whose foundation was laid in 2018 and which is set for completion by2023, has help built faith recently.

WEST SETI POWER PROJECT

  • Estimate to cost Nepali Rs 104 billion (IndianRs6,500crore), the project is envisage to provide Nepal with 31.9% electricity-free.
  • Nepal has a massive power shortfall as it generates only around 900MW against an install capacity of nearly2,000 MW.
  • Although it is currently selling 364MW power to India, it has over the years imported from India
Diplomatic Ties
  • After a standoff between Nepal and India led to the economic blockade of 2015, equations changed after last July, replacing Oli.
  • The West Seti Project covers the far western Nepal region, where Deuba hails from. Completion of the project will be a gift to his electorate and the region at this advanced stage in his career in Deuba.

West Seti has the potential to be a defining model for Nepal and India’s power relations in the future.

Read more: UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS

SOURCE: INDIAN EXPRESS