India proposes formation of Pancheshwar Development Authority

Thirteen years after signing the Mahakali treaty, India has proposed the formation of Pancheshwar Development Authority and operational manual for the project.

The foreign ministry in Nepal received a letter from the Indian foreign ministry proposing the formation of the Authority and operating manual.

The construction of the ambitious 6000 MW Pancheswar Hydropower project is the most important of the Pancheswhar multi-purpose project.

The project seeks to build a storage dam on the Mahakali river at the boundary of Uttarakhand and Nepal. Nearly 80 percent of the catchment area for the project would be in India and the rest in Nepal.

In the proposal, there is a provision of joint-chairmanship of the secretaries of water resource ministries of both the countries in the Authority. A company, Pancheshwar Board, will be formed to facilitate investment.

India has also proposed to have an Indian citizen as the main executive director of the project and a Nepali citizen for the Project chief.

A meeting of the water resource secretaries to be organised in New Delhi in the second week of March is expected to discuss further on the proposal.

"The Pancheshwar Development Authority will be set up jointly with the Government of Nepal for construction, operation and maintenance of the Pancheshwar project within a year," Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz told PTI on Sunday.

The Mahakali treaty was signed in 1996. Although the two countries had agreed to work out the details of the project within six months, it had not happened so far. nepalnews.com Mar 03 09