India okays 100 MW additional electricity.

India has agreed to provide an additional 100 Megawatt (MW) of electricity to Nepal to ease the acute power shortage in the country.
Indian officials expressed this readiness during the sixth meeting of the Joint Committee on Water Resources (JCWR) being held at the secretary level. The meeting began here on Thursday.
“The Indian side is positive about providing more electricity to Nepal and we have agreed to finalise the issue as quickly as possible at the technical level,” Energy Secretary Balananda Paudel, the leader of the Nepali delegation in the talks, said.
Officials of both the sides recently concluded that transmitting an additional 100 MW of power through the existing transmission lines with minimum repairs was feasible and that the process could take a maximum of three months to be sorted out.
Nepal intends to import the additional power before March 2012, but a more concrete timetable may only emerge on the final day of the talks on Friday, according to Paudel.
Discussions among officials of the Nepal Electricity Authority, the Power Grid of India and the Power Trade Corporation held in Kathmandu had concluded that 369 MW can be provided through the existing transmission lines. Nepal is currently receiving 120-134 MW of electricity from India.
India has also shown positive signs on Nepal’s proposal of a Power Trade Agreement (PTA). Nepal had pushed this agenda during the recent India tour of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai. Nepal and India don’t have a bilateral agreement on power trading yet.
PTA will help Nepal sell and buy power from/to India beyond the current provision of the Power Exchange Arrangement (PEA). PEA has set the limit of 50 MW. Nepal has also requested the Indian side to extend that limit to 150 MW.
“Both sides have recognised that the Power Trade Agreement is of great significance. Indian officials have told us that they will comment on it within this year,” Paudel said.
According to Paudel, India is also positive on Nepal’s proposal to establish a second cross-border transmission line (400 KV) connecting Gorakhpur (India) with Butwal (Nepal).
On the Pancheshwor project, India has committed to sort out the issue of the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Pancheshwor Development Authority (PDA) within three months, Acting Ambassador of Nepal to India Khaganath Adhikari said.