Kathmandu, 14 February (HS): Nepal-India have reached agreement on 6480 MW Pancheshwar multipurpose project. This information was given by Nepal’s Energy and Water Resources Minister Deepak Khadka, who visited India. He said that an agreement has been reached with India to take forward the stalled work of 6480 MW Pancheshwar multipurpose project.

During the meeting with the Indian Government’s Water Power Minister CR Patil in New Delhi on Thursday, serious discussions have been said to take forward the Pancheshwar project. Giving information about this meeting, Nepal’s Minister Deepak Khadka said that an agreement has been reached in the ministerial level talks to take forward the work as per the detailed project report (DPR) of Pancheshwar.

He said that soon a meeting of the expert group formed to take forward this project will be held and efforts will be made to gather consensus on all the subjects. The file of the DPR prepared by the Government of India has been with the Nepal government for the last several months. There has been an in-principle agreement between the ministers of Nepal and India to take it to the agreement stage by giving their suggestions to the government on this.

During the meeting of the ministers of Nepal and India, there was also a discussion about releasing the water of the Mahakali river in India through the link canal built from Tanakpur in Nepal to the Indian border. Regarding this, Minister Deepak Khadka said that the water of the Mahakali river will be divided as per the agreement between the two countries.

Similarly, it has been decided to hold the next meeting of the joint committee formed between Nepal and India for flood management in New Delhi on 23-24 March. There has also been an agreement between the two ministers to complete the construction and repair work of embankments in the border rivers before the rains by meeting in March.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar