nepal buying more electricity from INdia. I used to read in the school days that Nepal is the second richest country in hydropower after Brazil. Feel so low after reading this news article. All the corrupted political netas should be hanged to death.... Nepal to buy additional 40 MW power from India Giving some respite to Nepal from increasing load-shedding, India has agreed to export additional 40 MW electricity to Nepal by this winter. This is the first time Nepal is importing electricity from India for commercial purpose and which will be transmitted from Duhabi-Katiya transmission line in Biratnagar. During the eighth meeting of the Nepal-India Power Exchange Committee (PEC) that concluded Friday India agreed to export 40 MW power to Nepal by this October. A joint press statement issued after the meeting stated that India had agreed to upgrade the Duhabi-Kataiya transmission line, which will enable Nepal to import additional 40 MW electricity. “Currently, Nepal has been importing 50 MW of electricity through the transmission line. The upgrade of transmission line will enable Nepal to import an additional 40 MW of electricity,” the statement said. The upgrade of the transmission line is expected to be completed by October. Emerging from the meeting, Arjun Kumar Karki, managing director of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and head of the Nepali delegation said, "The meeting was a grand success. I am sure load-shedding next year may not be as severe as this year." As per the agreement, Nepal will also export 40 MW of electricity through the Gandak-Ram Nagar line during the rainy season at a competitive price. The issue of revision of power tariff, which had remained undecided since 2003, has also been resolved, with Indian and Nepali officials agreeing on annual tariff hike of 5 per cent for January 2004 to June 2008 against the annual tariff hike of 8.5 per cent. Likewise, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) can sell 70 million unit of electricity Nepal gets from Tanakpur to India. India has also decided to remove five out of 21 electricity exchange lines, which have fallen into disuse. The PEC meeting, which is supposed to be held every year by rotation in India and Nepal, had taken place after four years. The last meeting held in the year 2003 had ended inconclusively after the two sides had differences in issues related to revision of power tariff. nepalnews.com ag June 09 07