The under-construction substation costing Rs. 110 million in Khotang has been stalled for a long time. The construction of the substation of the Nepal Electricity Authority being constructed at Baksila Simpani of Kepilasgadhi Rural Municipality-4 of the district has been stalled for a long time.

The electrical equipment of the substation are scattered in the construction site. Some of the equipment are kept in the open ground even though they get damaged by water. It is estimated that the expensive equipment that were scattered in the open ground have become unusable.

Only the pillars of some structures have been erected, while the construction work of the control buildings has not been completed. In August 2016, the Indian contractor company A2Z Infra Engineering Limited signed an agreement to complete the construction of Buipa-Baksila transmission line, transformer and substation in three years.

Although the contractor company has completed the work of Buipa-Baksila 33 kV and 11 kV transmission lines, the work of instaling transformers and construction of substation has been hindered.

Bijay Raj Regmi, chief of Khotang branch of the NEA, said that after the construction of the delayed substation is completed and comes into operation, some of the problems related to electricity supply in the district will come to an end.

“Now, if there is a problem with the electricity supply in the Baksila area, there will also be a problem with electricity supply in Halesi Tuwachung Municipality, Aiselukharka Rural Municipality, Rawa Besi Rural Municipality area and other places in the district. When the power supply is disrupted in one place, there is a situation to cut the supply in many places in the district. Therefore, such problems would have been solved if the substation had come into operation in Baksila,” he said.

The local government has repeatedly approached the NEA to complete the remaining work of the substation.

Despite getting the commitment to start the work from the concerned authority, it was not implemented in practice, said Samir Rai, chairman of Kepilasgadhi Rural Municipality.

“I went to the concerned agency and requested to break the contract and begin the process anew. But since the process will be long, the same contractor was asked to start the work soon. Some people even came to the field to inspect, but the work has not started yet,” said Rai.

Although construction of a substation has been started in Baksila targeting the customers of the northern region of the district, the work has not been completed even after the passage of four years according to the contract.

So far, 70 per cent of the work has been completed, and by the time the rest of the work is completed, the total cost of the project will reach around Rs. 110 million, the Authority said.

Bodhraj Dhakal, chief of Distribution System Strengthening and Expansion Project of Nepal Electricity Authority, said that the work of connecting substations and transformers has not picked up speed due to the frequent change of subcontractors.