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Proposed Upper Karnali Hydropower Project occupied by an Indian company, GMR.

By Our Reporter

The largest number of Nepali rivers are been occupied by the Indians. Under the leadership of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, one after another rivers were handed over to the Indians. Major projects from Arun to Karnali have already gone into the Indian bag. The Mahakali Treaty signed 30 years ago, has not yet been implemented. The bitter pain of the Mahakali Treaty is in front of us, yet the process of handing over other rivers to the Indians continues.

In 2077 BS, during the tenure of former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, it was decided to hand over the Lower Arun of 679 megawatts to an Indian company. India is determined to construct the Upper Arun hydroelectric power plant. It is sure that India is going to hold the Upper Arun project also. This will be India’s fourth project on the Arun River. Arun-3 project is being constructed by India at present. The Satluj Power Corporation of the Government of India has also received permission to build the Lower Arun Hydropower Project. The Arun-4 hydropower project has been agreed to be built by forming a joint company with the Nepal Electricity Authority. Arun-3 is the third solo project in the current construction phase with Indian investment. The present Indian strategy is not to buy electricity produced through the Chinese and other countries’ investments. Furthermore, the Indian side, after occupying rivers, has initiated the strategy of keeping on hold the hydropower projects.

On the other hand, due to the negligence of India, the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the Pancheshwar Multi-Purpose on the Mahakali River has not been completed. On Magh 29, 2052 BS, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his Indian counterpart PV Narasimha Rao held talks on the Sharda and Tanakpur Barrage and Pancheshwar Project. However, India does not want to go ahead with the project that will benefit Nepal.

The purpose of the Project was to generate electricity and provide electricity and irrigation on both sides through a 315-meter-high dam in Mahakali under Pancheshwar. However, until now, Nepal has received neither electricity nor irrigation.

Dilemma on the Naumure Project:

We have the Naumure Hydroelectric Project as an example that India has not worked on. It is now being built by the Government of Nepal after India did not take the initiative. The Naumure hydropower project is an example of India holding Nepal’s rivers but not constructing the projects despite agreements between Nepal and India.

India submitted a proposal to the Nepal government in 2065 BS to build a 245 MW hydroelectric power project on the Rapti River on the border of Arghakhachi and Pyuthan. When Maoist Center Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda became the first Prime Minister of Nepal, New Delhi promised to gift the project to Nepal. That is how the agreement was made. Later, India refused to construct the project by putting forward different conditions.

The Indian side put the condition for using the water from Naumure (Rapti) by India after the construction of the project.

The Indian plan was to take all water from Naumure to the Lakshmanpur Dam. When Nepal became aware of the Indian design, decided to construct the project by itself. Now, the DPR work of the Noumure Project has been completed.

During the Panchayat era, the German government had planned to construct a reservoir at Bagasoti in the Rapti Village Development Committee-1 and manage water for irrigation. When the German team started a study, the Indian side protested and work was stopped.

Dishonesty in Karnali

The Upper Karnali Hydropower Project was handed over to the Indian party in 2008, however, the construction work has not been started until now. Neither the Indian party starts construction, nor returns the project to Nepal. The government had awarded the 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project to the Indian company GMR through a global tender. Although the formal process has been going on since 2012, the project development agreement was signed in 2014. Within 10 years of that, India did not start the construction work.

GMR is holding on to the project rather than building it. Nepalese technicians say that the construction of a reservoir-model project on the border of Achham and Karnali, the dam site of Upper Karnali, will produce 4,800 megawatts of electricity. The Upper Karnali project is the pearl of Karnali but GMAR has just occupied it. There is no problem with land for planning. Cutting trees in the forest area has been allowed. Armed police are deployed at the site. The work of giving compensation of land to the locals has started. However, GMR has stayed away from construction on several pretexts. GMR is renewing its license by extending tenure time and again. The cost of the project was $116 million. But due to the mismanagement of Indian companies, the cost will also increase. Even Nepal’s policy can neither tell GMR to quit nor can it dare to construct by itself.

The project is planned to be built with a 58-meter-high dam. Water will be sent to the project by building a dam with a width of 207 meters. It is said to have constructed 8 surface powerhouses of 112.5 MW. However, GMR had failed to manage the necessary funds.

The State of the Railways:

India has not only put on hold different hydropower projects but has also put on hold the project for which it was entrusted with the construction. Talks have been on for two years about breaking half a dozen contracts that are in trouble after the Indian construction companies did not build. However, the initiative taken by the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport to break the contract has not yet materialized.

Earlier, the then Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Prakash Jwala, called Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava and discussed the issue of Indian investments and Indian companies not working with contracts. Jwala had then said that they were in favour of breaking the contract of the long-pending plan.

Bathnaha-Biratnagar Railway

The construction of the broad-gauge railway from Batnaha of India to Katahari in Morang, for which an agreement was inked 13 years ago, is still pending. MRU Sevak, the Indian contractor company, has walked off the job twice. In 2023, the construction company moved to the working side.

The seven-and-a-half-kilometre section from India’s Bathinda to Biratnagar customs yard was inaugurated. The work towards Katahari of Tarnepal has not progressed. Last year, the railway was inaugurated by the Prime Ministers of India and Nepal. Industrialists in the Sunsari-Morang industrial area do not bring industrial raw materials through the cargo rail, saying that the transportation cost is expensive.

On the other hand, the Indian company is not ready to build an 11-kilometer railway to Nepal on the 18.6-kilometer track. Locals have complained about not getting compensation for their land around 1200 meters towards Nepal. The railway line to Nepal was stuck after the Indian company walked away because it was not allowed to work.

Lamhi-Ghorahi-Tulsipur road:

The Lamhi-Ghorahi-Tulsipur four-lane road expansion project of Dang was delayed by India for five years. The Indian company did not work even after five years on this project, which has been under construction since January 13, 2015. Even though the contract was to be completed within 30 months of the start of the work, the Indian company didn’t start work.

The Indian Construction Engineering and Infra Project was entrusted with the construction of the road at a cost of US $12.28 million. The government had complained to the Indian Embassy after the four-lane road expansion project failed to take off even after five years. The government has broken its contract after failing to work even after three extensions. After the completion of the construction of the project, the government is now preparing to construct by itself.

Earlier, Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel managed the budget for the construction of the road with the investment of EXIM Bank, India, will be done by Nepal instead of an Indian company. The Ministry of Finance has written a letter to the National Planning Commission on December 11, saying that the budget provision has been made for the four-lane expansion of the Ghorahi-Tulsipur road section. Earlier, the government had said that it would give a last chance to go ahead with the projects, including roads and railways. But after the Indian company came into existence, many contracts have been broken. The then minister Jwala had called the Indian ambassador in turn and told him to break the contract if work is not been done.

Ravi-Ranke-Bhedetar Road:

Five years after the construction works started on the Ravi-Ranke-Bhedetar road connecting Dhankuta and Ilam districts, there has been no visible progress. Due to the negligence of the Indian construction company, the physical progress of the 11 km road has not reached even 25% after five years. Two years have passed since the expiry of the four-year deadline for the construction of the 103-kilometer road connecting Dhankuta’s Bhedetar via Rabi-6. But the work has not moved forward. The cost of the project is $4 billion. The EXIM Bank of India signed an agreement with India’s Epco Infratech Company in 2075 to upgrade this road at a cost of Rs 3.65 billion. The work that was supposed to be completed by 2078 has not reached 50 percent.

Kamalvinayak-Nagarkot road:

Kamalvinayak-Nagarkot Road Expansion Project in Bhaktapur, which is rewarded to Maoist Center Chairman Prachanda’s house owner Sharda Prasad Adhikari and an Indian company, has been extended ten times. Yet, it is unknown how long it will take to complete the project. The construction of this road, which has been under construction for 11 years, has not been completed. The deadline for the construction of the 16-kilometer Kamalvinayak-Nagarkot Road has been extended 10 times in 11 years. The construction company of this road has also made a mockery of the contract agreement signed on January 29, 2017, which had to be completed in three years. It is not known when the Indian contractor company AIPL and Shailung Construction will complete the work. Prachanda’s house owner is also the owner of Shailung Construction. APL is an Indian company. But this company was walking hand in hand while working. 98% of the work on this road costing Rs 30 crore has been completed so far, but the construction has not been completed yet. The construction company still has about 400 meters of road to be blacktopped. 5 km of roads need to be repaired. The government was preparing to break the contract of Kamalvinayak-Nagarkot road as the work did not progress despite eight extensions.

The Bhaktapur-Nagarkot-Sipaghat Road Expansion Project issued a 14-day notice on March 13, 2018, saying that the contract would be broken if the work did not progress. Instead, two deadlines have been added so that the work has not yet been completed.

Trishuli-Bidur Road:

The condition of not only the Bhaktapur-Nagarkot road project and also other roads in the capital that have been taken over by Indian companies, is deplorable. The construction of the Balaju-Kakani-Trishuli road has been going on for a decade. In 2015, the formal construction of Yosdak is taking place at a rapid pace. The Balaju-Kakani-Trishuli road extension, which is to be constructed by the Indian company AIPL and Prachanda’s house owner Shailung Construction, has been pending for eight years. The 55-kilometre-long road was widened in 2015. Due to the negligence of the Indian contractor, the project is still incomplete despite repeated extensions of deadlines. The current rate of improvement is only 65%. The Directorate of Road Improvement and Development Planning broke the contract after the project did not progress despite seven deadlines on the Chahare-Bidur road. The contractor company has been blacklisted by the Public Procurement Monitoring Office for three years. The contract for the 34.18-kilometre Ranipauwa-Trishuli road section has also been cancelled. The contract was terminated due to lack of progress. The contract for this road was taken by a JV with Indian company Dinesh Chandra R. Agarwal and Nagarjuna-Kosi & Company. But after the work was not done, the company has been blacklisted from getting a new contract for three years.

In Tarai plains also the condition of the road taken by the Indian company is the same. Basantpur-Katahariya-Kawagoth-Pipradi road, which is under construction is facing the same plight.