India’s Minister of Power and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Manohar Lal Khattar, is set to visit Nepal at the invitation of Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Deepak Khadka.

According to the schedule, Minister Khattar will arrive in Nepal on Tuesday morning.

Minister Khadka and his Indian counterpart Khattar will jointly inaugurate the Koshi Corridor transmission line, which has been completed in Sankhuwasabha. The joint inauguration will include four 220 kV substations - Basantpur, Baneshwar, Tumlingtar, and Dungesanghu - as well as three transmission lines in Sankhuwasabha.

Under the Koshi Corridor project, a 33-kilometer transmission line from Baneshwar to Basantpur, a 34-kilometer line from Basantpur to Dungesanghu, and a 74-kilometer line from Basantpur to Inaruwa have been constructed.

The project, which began in 2016, was completed with a total investment of US$112 million including a concessional loan of US$90 million from the Government of India and US$22 million from the Government of Nepal.

These projects under the Koshi Corridor transmission line have the capacity to transmit approximately 1,000 megawatts of electricity from Tumlingtar to Basantpur, another 1,000 megawatts from Dungesanghu (Taplejung) to Basantpur, and around 2,000 megawatts from Basantpur to Inaruwa.

The Koshi Corridor has been developed to connect electricity generated from ongoing hydropower projects on the Arun and Tamor rivers, along with their tributaries, to the national transmission grid.

This project has become a reliable backbone for power supply in eastern Nepal and is also expected to play a significant role in expanding energy trade with India.