The Central China Power Grid (CCPG) — contractor of the Dhalkebar substation project — has pledged to complete the construction work of the project within October.

This commitment by CCPG was made during a visit by Minister for Energy Mahendra Bahadur Shahi and Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Kulman Ghising at the project site in Dhalkebar, Dhanusa, on Saturday. The government team had visited the site following reports regarding the delay in construction work.

On the occasion, Project Manager of CCPG Geng Jialing, said that the project can be completed within the next two months if the contractor is provided necessary resources promptly and the government assures a working environment in the project site.

The monitoring team had concluded that though almost 80 per cent of the construction work at Dhalkebar substation was completed, the remaining work was delayed due to lack of coordination between the contractor and the consultant company of the project regarding bill payments and cable trench.

Thus, the minister-led team has directed consultant company to issue final drawing of cable trench road within Sunday and also directed CCPG to submit progress payment bills to the consultant for verification so that the consultant can recommend NEA to finalise the payments.

Minister Shahi also urged the contractor to report of any work related problem at the substation directly to the Ministry of Energy or the NEA.

Similarly, NEA MD Ghising said that CCPG should complete the Dhalkebar substation project by the stimulated time period (October) as project carries national significance.

As NEA had terminated the contract of CCPG, which was also working in the Bharatpur-Bardaghat transmission line on June 5, the contractor had begun showing dissatisfaction with NEA by delaying work at the Dhalkebar substation project, which was supposed to be completed by early 2017.

The completion of Dhalkebar substation is expected to improve the transmission network of the country. The country will be able to import an additional 100 megawatts of electricity on top of the existing 145 megawatts from India after the Dhalkebar substation is charged at 220 kV, which is critical to end load shedding.

With the power demand increasing in the country with almost 1,500 megawatts of demand in peak hours in winter, increasing import from India is vital for NEA for load management during the winter season.

The CCPG and NEA had signed the Dhalkebar substation project contract on June 12, 2014 with a target to complete it within 15 months.