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Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Biraj Bhakta Shrestha has reviewed the electricity supply, distribution and related problems in Banke, Bardiya, Rolpa, Dang, Pyuthan and other districts of western Nepal.

During his visit to western Nepal, Minister Shrestha visited the Nepal Electricity Authority's Lumbini Province Division Office in Nepalgunj, where he held discussions with officials and received a detailed briefing on the region's power supply and distribution system.

After hearing presentations from the division office chief, the provincial office chief and the head of the Nepalgunj Distribution Centre, the minister said that many of the area's electricity problems were caused by an ageing distribution network. He pledged to allocate the necessary budget in the coming fiscal year to upgrade and strengthen the electricity distribution system.

Shrestha said the distribution network had not received the expected level of improvement for many years, leading to growing structural and technical problems. He added that there had been no major upgrade to the distribution network under the Seventh Electrification Project since the 1990s.

He said electricity demand has been increasing by around 15 per cent every year, making it difficult for the old system to handle the growing load. According to the minister, the distribution network at the end of the Kohalpur National Grid and Tanakpur supply line challenges in the switching system, the lack of a nearby power generation centre, low voltage and delays in bringing the under-construction New Nepalgunj Substation into operation have all affected the quality of electricity supply.

The minister also said overloaded feeders, frequent power trips and ageing infrastructure have prevented the authority from providing the level of service expected by consumers.

During the discussion, Shrestha directed officials to coordinate efforts to bring the under-construction New Nepalgunj Substation into operation before next summer. He also said that additional transformers with the required capacity would be provided for Nepalgunj.

He further pledged to give priority to increasing the capacity of the distribution network, upgrading old power lines and conductors, expanding new feeders where necessary and improving load management.

On the occasion, Manoj Yadav, chief of the Nepal Electricity Authority's Lumbini Province Office, Deepak Gautam, chief of the Lumbini Province Division Office in Nepalgunj, and Sanjay Kumar Mishra, chief of the Nepalgunj Distribution Centre, briefed the minister on the current state of electricity supply and distribution and the challenges facing the region.

Local residents also drew the minister's attention to the problems they have been facing with electricity supply and distribution.

By Siraj Khan