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With the government mulling handing over the development of the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), a task force has been formed to finalize the share structure of Budhi Gandaki Jalbidhyut Public Limited. The task force led by NEA Deputy Executive Director Pradeep Kumar Thike will revise the share structure of Budhi Gandaki Jalbidhyut Public Limited to give a majority stake in the company to the government-owned power utility. Energy Secretary Dinesh Kumar Ghimire while welcoming the newly appointed Ministry for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Shakti Basnet at NEA on Monday, the share of the company is being restructured as per the instruction of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to advance the much-hyped hydropower project. The government in the last fiscal year decided to build the reservoir-type project on its own and established Budhi Gandaki Jalbidhyut Public Limited for the development of the 12,00MW project. However, the company is yet to come into operation as the government has not provided the budget to get approval for commencement from the Office of the Company Registrar (OCR).   As of now, the authorized capital of Budhi Gandaki company is Rs 20 billion. The Energy Ministry has a 50 percent stake in the company while the Finance Ministry and NEA have 30 percent and 20 percent stakes, respectively. According to NEA, it has the technical expertise on developing big projects but it wants a majority stake in the newly established company. The share structure of the company will be restructured based on the report of the Thike-led task force. As developing storage-type projects is quite expensive compared to the run of the river-type projects, a viability gap funding is likely to be required from the government to develop this project, according to NEA. Budhi Gandaki is a ready-to-go project as its detailed project report (DPR) has already been prepared. Compensation distribution for the land acquisition and houses has also been in the final stage, according to Energy Ministry officials. The project which has been touted as important to ensuring Nepal's energy security as it is expected to help the country to be self-reliant even during the dry season has been in limbo for a long due to uncertainty over the modality of its development. Earlier, Budhigandaki fell victim to policy inconsistency despite facing hardly any problem in land acquisition and completion of DPR. In 2017, the then government led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal awarded a contract to build the project without competitive bidding to China Gezhouba Group Corporation under the engineering, procurement, construction, and financing (EPCF) modality. The Sher Bahadur Deuba-led administration in November 2017 overturned the earlier government’s decision. A high-level team led by Swarnim Wagle, former Vice-chair of the National Planning Commission, was then established. The committee suggested that the project could also be developed using domestic resources. Again, in September 2018, the government led by KP Sharma Oli decided in favor of the Chinese company, reversing the decision of the Deuba-led government. In April of last year, the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government once more decided to terminate the license granted to the Chinese company since it was not making any progress on the project. Budhi Gandaki, which will be Nepal's second and the largest reservoir-type hydel project with an estimated cost of USD 2.6 billion, is situated at the boundary between the districts of Gorkha and Dhading. The report prepared by the committee headed by Wagle in 2017 suggested that the government should develop the project on its own by providing viability gap funding, covering around one-third of the project development cost. As per its report, the government could cover the cost of land acquisition and resettlement of displaced families which could total as high as Rs 94 billion. A significant chunk of resources can be generated from government institutions. An infrastructure tax being imposed on imported fuel could be an important source of revenue that can be used to develop the project. According to the Wagle report, public enterprises such as Nepal Electricity Authority, Employees Provident Fund, Nepal Telecom, Rastriya Beema Sansthan, Hydroelectric Investment and Development Company, Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Company, Chilime Hydropower Company, along with Nepal Army, Nepal Police, and the general public could be tapped for the project.

The price of gold has increased by Rs 2, 000 per tola in the domestic market on Wednesday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 111, 000 per tola today. The gold was traded at Rs 109, 000 per tola on Tuesday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 110, 450 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 40 and is being traded at Rs 1,440 per tola today.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 5. 20 points to close at 1,866.68 points on Tuesday. Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 0. 73 points to close at 351. 97 points. A total of 2,971,947-unit shares of 264 companies were traded for Rs 917 billion. Meanwhile, Kalinchowk Darshan Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 9. 98 percent. Likewise, Prabhu Bank Debenture was the top loser with its price dropped by 9.29 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 70 trillion.

Struggling to provide electricity to industries, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has continued to cut power in the industrial zones in Terai. Particularly, the government-owned power utility has not been able to transmit power to the western Terai region during peak hours. Because of weak transmission infrastructure, NEA has been failing to take electricity from the eastern side of the country to the western side even though the country has been importing electricity in the winter from India by using the 400kV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line. Besides poor local transmission infrastructure,  equally poor cross-border transmission infrastructure has also prevented the country from trading power through with about a dozen low-capacity cross-border lines whose capacity ranges from 33kV to 132kV. Nepal and India agreed to upgrade these low-capacity power lines to boost electricity trading during the 10th joint secretary-level Joint Working Group and the secretary-level Joint Steering Committee held in Jaipur, India on February 17-18. There has been certain progress in upgrading low-capacity lines. “Construction of a second circuit of 132kV Kataiya-Kusaha cross-border transmission line has already been completed,” said a senior official of NEA.  “It should be charged with electricity soon  which has not happened yet.” Likewise, Nepal has already completed constructing a second circuit of the 132kV Parwanipur-Raxaul power line. “The Indian side has notified us that they are constructing an inter-connection of the line between Old Raxaul and New Raxaul area as a part of the construction of a second circuit of the cross-border line,” the official said. Particularly, industries based in the Birgunj area are suffering due to power cuts in the winter as Nepal has not been able to buy extra power from Bihar while Nepal cannot transmit additional power brought through the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line to the Birgunj area because of poor transmission infrastructure. In the last meeting, both sides agreed to improve the capacity of the Raxaul-Parwanipur power line by May this year. Likewise, Nepal has already built the Nepal section of the proposed  132 kV cross-border line between Mainaiya (Butwal)—New Nautanwa (India). “India has also decided to build part of the proposed power line on their side,” the NEA official said. During the last bilateral meeting in India, they had agreed to complete the new Butwal-Mainahiya power line by September this year. Similarly,  Nepal has already issued a tender for constructing a new 132 kV cross-border power line between the Nepalgunj-Nayantara line where a 33 kV line is available, according to the NEA. “The Indian government has also decided to build part of this cross-border line on its territory,” the NEA official said. The capacity of the Nepalgunj-Nantarapower line will also be improved by September this year. The two countries agreed to trade 70MW-80MW through the 132kV Tanakpur-Mahendranagar Cross Border Line. Currently, Nepal has only been importing power through this power line. Except for 400 kV  Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur, all other transmission lines have been used for trading power exclusively via government-to-government agreements.  The NEA official said improvement in these low-capacity power lines would pave the way for more cross-border power trade. “We can also address power supply problems in certain areas of the country due to poor domestic transmission infrastructure,” the official said.