The Hindu : National : Nepal-India water talks conclude with new pacts

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National

Nepal-India water talks conclude with new pacts

Prerana Marasini

“Inundation issues will also be solved jointly”

Pancheswor Development Authority
to be formed
Pre-feasibility study for Naumure project
to be completed soon

KATHMANDU: The three-day meeting of high-level secretaries of Nepal and India on water concluded on Wednesday with new agreements.

Shankar Prasad Koirala, secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources, who headed the Nepali delegation, said a Pancheswor Development Authority would be formed soon to carry on with the implementation of the Pancheswor Multipurpose Project. The 5600-MW project is a joint project between the two countries.

The pre-feasibility study for the 245-MW Naumure project which the Government of India agreed to provide Nepal as a ‘goodwill gesture’ is said to be completed in the next three months.

Talking to reporters, India’s Water Resource Secretary Umesh Narayan Panjiar said inundation issues will be solved jointly.

Meanwhile, Koirala said India has agreed to build an “unregulated water outlet” in the flood-prone Laxmanpur area for the rivers Gandhaili and Sotiyanala.

As per its past agreement, India would also be building a four -lane12-km Mahendranagar-Tanakpur Road, he informed.

On Tuesday, the teams visited the Kosi embankment site.

Koirala said technical aspects of the embankment building would be discussed in the first week of November to finish the reconstruction by March 2009.

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