The government has expedited construction of cross-border transmission lines between Nepal and India to export at least 13,000 MW of electricity to India in the next five years.

Speaking at the ‘Nepal Infrastructure Summit’ on Thursday, Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Kulman Ghising said the state-owned power utility has been building transmission lines with capacities of 132 kV and 400 kV at a number of locations. The fourth edition of the two-day summit is being organized by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries.

At present, Nepal exports up to 400 MW of electricity to India while the NEA has targeted to increase the figure to 615 MW in the current fiscal year. As of now, the NEA has constructed seven 132 kV transmission lines and a 400 kV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line, which are capable of exporting 2,000 MW to India, according to Ghising.

Ghising said a double circuit 400 kV transmission line will be constructed from Dirding of Sankhuwasabha to Sitamadhi of India in the next one year. Likewise, the pipeline projects 679 MW Lower Arun and 490 MW Arun-4 will be constructing a 400 kV transmission line while the NEA will construct a 132 kV line for these projects.

Similarly, 400 kV transmission lines from Lamki of Kailali to Bareli of India, Duhabi-Purniya and Butwal-Gorakhpur are among the projects in the pipeline.