Danish govt approves additional Rs 220m for rural electrification

The Government of Denmark has agreed to provide an additional grant assistance of Rs 220 million for the completion of rural electrification project in two far-western districts, Kailai and Kanchanpur.

Danish ambassador to Nepal Finn Thilsted and finance secretary Bidyadhar Mallik, signed the addendum agreement at the Ministry of Finance on Thursday.

The Kailai-Kanchanpur Rural Electrification Project (KKREP) under the Energy Sector Assistance Programme has since suffered constant delays due to the volatile security situation in the country and the bankruptcy of one of the Danish contractors.

With a view to meet the increased demand of the villages in the project area and finalise the project smoothly, the additional grant will contribute in providing electricity to 50,000 rural households through building of overhead lines and updating of existing transformer stations in the two far western districts, a Danish Embassy release said.

Until now only few villages have been electrified and it is expected that within the next three months all the villages within the 50 load centers and rest of the villages within 170 load centers will be connected by December 2007, the embassy said. nepalnews.com mk Dec 14 06