KATHMANDU: The clean energy entrepreneurs have complained about poor coordination from the state agencies and lack of environment conducive for power development in the country.
Despite government’s facilitation and promise for one-stop service to encourage, expand and promote investment in the energy sector, very little has been done and the energy developers are obliged to visit seven ministries and 27 different departments of the government.
At an interaction with a delegation of Independent Power Producers’ Association-Nepal (IPPAN) in the Ministry of Energy on Tuesday, the power developers reiterated their problems facing for long in this sector.
On the occasion, IPPAN Chairman Krishna Acharya said they were not getting positive response from the government bodies despite their investment in this sector for the country’s prosperity.
The private sector’s investment is more than the government in the under-construction projects that are generating almost 3,000 megawatts of power. Of the total 30,088 megawatt-hours demand in the country, the private sector’s contribution is almost 18,000 megawatt-hours.
Upon hearing the complaints of the power developers, Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal said that she would pay attention to end the dillydallying in the development of energy while stressing for hassle-free service delivery and work execution.
She argued that delay in time should be considered equal to financial embezzlement.
On the occasion, Minister Bhusal pledged to hold inter-ministerial discussions to end the trend of multi-stakeholder discussions to develop a project from the private sector.
Bhusal said that she was always positive to resolve the problems faced by the private sector. “I will make maximum efforts to resolve your issues. I am committed to this; I will take efforts.”
On the occasion, Bhusal added that the Ministry was doing homework to increase the power consumption and called for support from all sides towards that end.
