July 24: A parliamentary committee has decided to initiate a probe into the delay in transfer of ownership of Khimti Hydropower Project. The Agriculture, Cooperatives and Natural Resources Committee under the federal parliament has initiated the probe by obtaining documents related to Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and Project Development Agreement (PDA) of the hydropower project.

The committee had sent a letter to the Ministry of Energy, Water Resource and Irrigation last Monday to submit the documents within three days. Following the directive, the ministry had sent the necessary documents by Wednesday, and subsequently, the committee started the probe from Thursday. The committee will complete studying the documents within a week.

A member of the probe committee said that they initiated the investigation after the ownership handover of the project was not done in time. “We have already started the probe after receiving PPA and PDA. We have taken this step to find out why the handover was not done in time,” he said, “Now we are studying the arrangement and agreement in PPA and PDA. We will then give necessary instruction to the concerned bodies.”

An official of the Nepal Electricity Authority admitted that the parliamentary committee has started investigation into the matter. Spokesperson of NEA Prabal Adhikari said that discussions with Himal Power Limited to finalise the handover of ownership is underway.

According to the pre-agreement between the Nepal Government and Himal Power Limited, 50% share ownership of the 60 MW project was to be given to NEA. However, due to the four-month long lockdown, it did not happen. Both the ministry and NEA said discussions in this regard is still ongoing.

Prabin Raj Aryal, spokesperson of the ministry informed that they are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

As the officials of Himal Power were abroad and stuck there due to the lockdown, a virtual meeting was held between Himal Power and NEA regarding transfer of ownership. However, the meeting could not reach a conclusion. NEA claims that the transfer of the ownership was not completed in time due to the same reason.