Kathmandu, January 5
The proposed Electricity Bill once enacted will give local level governments the authority to select competent promoters to develop hydropower projects with capacity to generate less than three megawatts of power.
The draft of the bill states that local level governments will be allowed to issue the licence and award the contract to develop such projects to any promoter even if the bidding company does not have any prior experience in developing hydropower projects.
The bill further states that if the hydropower project falls in two adjoining local levels then the authority to make the decision for such projects will be transferred to the provincial government.
Moreover, if any hydropower project is located in two provinces then the central government will have the authority to make the decision. Until now all hydropower projects that have been developed or are being developed have been done as per decisions made by the central government.
The aforementioned provisions have been included as per the spirit of the federal governing system to share power and water resources among all three layers of governments.
On September 17, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation had made public the draft of the new electricity bill for further discussions. At that time, the ministry had sought feedback and suggestions within 15 days, but the ministry has not been able
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