Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority Kulman Ghising has said that the government should not make policies to make hydropower projects more expensive. He argues that if hydropower is expensive, electricity cannot be exported to India and Bangladesh.

On Wednesday, in the discussion held by the Agriculture, Cooperative and Natural Resources Committee under the House of Representatives regarding Tanahun Hydropower Project and Rahuganga Hydropower Project, he said that the project is becoming more expensive due to the policies and regulations of the government.

He said that the cost of the project is increasing due to the fact that natural resources cannot be used while constructing the hydroelectric project, billions of rupees have to be spent on the acquisition of forest land.

Ghising said that the activities and policies of the government will determine whether to make hydropower cheaper or more expensive. Ghising says that when hydropower is expensive, electricity will become expensive for the people as well.

He claims that as much as it can be made cheaper by producing hydropower, it will be exported to India and Bangladesh. He said that in order to export electricity to Bangladesh, electricity should be provided cheaper than India.

“Tanahun hydropower is a 50 billion project. In which about 3 billion had to be paid to forests and government land. Similarly, it is not good to increase the cost of the project by another 3 billion to 6 billion for private land and 6 percent for government land, he said.

He informed that the electricity generated from the project is expensive and the yield is not even 5 percent.

This is a very expensive project. This project has progressed due to ADB and other loans. Otherwise, many better projects than this project have not progressed,’ Ghising said, ‘If we continue to make projects more expensive, our hydropower will also be more expensive for the people.’

He said that no project in the Kaligandaki Corridor can be done cheaply if no resource of Kaligandaki is used. Ghising claimed that money will come from the project only if the resources are used according to the need.