India to give Nepal additional 240 MW electricity

India has agreed to export to Nepal additional 240 megawatts of electricity -- 80 MW immediately from January and 160 MW from February -- in a bid to lessen the power woes of the Himalayan nation.

An agreement was signed to this effect in New Delhi on Thursday between Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), a wholly-owned subsidiary of India's state-owned power major NTPC.

The NEA is Nepal's state-owned electricity company. The import will be made through Dhalkebar-Mujjafpur Cross Border Transmission line which was inaugurated in February 2016.

The fresh agreement on power purchase from India would to some extent address the problem of blackouts in the country, the NEA said in a statement.

Nepal is reeling under a huge power crisis. The country suffered power cuts up to 15 hours everyday until last year -- mostly in winter season.

To cope with this perennial power crisis, Nepal in September signed an agreement to import additional 250 MW electricity from India through various cross-border transmission lines.

It was decided that India will install additional 100 MVA transmission line in Muzaffarpur in its side to ease the export to Nepal.

Currently, Nepal has been importing 345 MW electricity from India.

--IANS

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