Kathmandu. More than 5 years have passed since the deadline for Nepal Electricity Authority to acquire 50 percent ownership of the Khimti Hydropower Project expired, but the government has not yet been able to bring the authority's ownership. The 60 MW project, built with foreign investment, was supposed to have its 50 percent ownership transferred to the Electricity Authority five years ago. However, the share ownership has not been acquired for a long time. After the current government was formed, the authority's board of directors reconstituted a new negotiation committee to finalize the long-stalled share transfer process. However, the committee formed by the authority has not made any concrete progress in six months. The committee has been given a mandate to resolve the problem immediately through negotiation.
According to the negotiation committee, the process has not been able to move forward and bring the project under the authority's ownership due to disagreements between the promoter company and the authority, especially on the rate of the new Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and the operating modality of the joint venture company.
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