Nepal seeks investment from Indian businessmen

KOLKATA: Nepal wants investments from Indian businessmen in multi-purpose water resources development projects, consul-general of Nepal in Kolkata Yuba Raj Bhusal told TNN recently.
According to Bhusal, such investments will also help India overcome the thermalhydel imbalance in electricity in the eastern Indian states. Bhusal said: "Nepal is a power surplus state and ranks second after Brazil.But, at present the country is generating only 500 MW of hydro-electricity while it has the potential to produce 83,000 MW of hydel power." Bhusal said that Nepal had already entered into a multi-purpose investment treaty with India. "This will help in the export of hydro-electricity to Bengal, Bihar and Orissa," he said.
Compared to an ideal thermal-hydel mix of 60:40, 97 per cent of power plants in eastern India are thermal, with only three per cent hydel. This leads to a problem of managing demand for power during the evening peak hours. Nepal has a number of unutilised rivers which include Koshi, Bagmati, Kamal, Gandaki, Rapti, Karnali and Mechi.
According to the Nepalese consul-general, if dams are constructed on these rivers for generating hydro-electricity, they would also result in preventing the flash floods that plague large parts of Bihar almost every year.
Bhusal explained that the Nepalese government was ready to offer various incentives for Indian businessmen willing to invest in Nepal.