India and Nepal signed a preliminary agreement on cross-border power transmission on Thursday in Delhi.
However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s desire for a joint venture company for conducting power trade with Nepal as well as other neighbours with whom India has struck such an arrangement as Bangladesh could not be realised.
The Modi government had planned to begin the joint venture concept with Nepal and was unable to do so despite the fact that the previous UPA government had conceded majority control in the joint venture to the Nepali side.
Also, the original, more comprehensive Power Trade Agreement (PTA) that was to be signed during Mr. Modi’s visit to the Himalayan nation in August but was deferred following objections within Nepal, continues to elude consensus. Nepal has suggested that the issue should be dealt comprehensively by the India-Nepal Joint Committee on Water Resources, which deals with all water and power-related issues.
Power Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha and his Nepalese counterpart Rajendra Kishor Kshatri signed on the preliminary agreement after three hours of talks.
“An agreement on electric power trade, cross-border transmission, interconnection and grid connectivity was initialled by the two Secretaries,” Tirtha Raj Wagle, Minister Counsellor-Political at the Nepal Embassy in India, told The Hindu .
“Earlier there were some concerns about all aspects of power trade, including power sector development and investment, between the two nations would be covered under the same agreement but now those other aspects would be covered under separate agreements,” said Mr. Wagle.
