November 4: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of an Indian company Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), which is the promoter of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. The cabinet had decided to extend GMR's term by two years.    
A single bench of SC Justice Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada issued the interim order on Thursday against the cabinet decision of July 15 to extend the term of the project by another two years. The term of GMR had expired three years back.    
The SC questioned why the cabinet decided to extend the term of the project while it was earlier decided by the Investment Board.    
The Investment Board of Nepal and GMR had signed the project development agreement seven years ago for a term of two years.    
Later, the company was given one more year since the project did not advance as agreed in the contract.    
Likewise, the board again extended the term by one more year for financial closure for the Indian company. Since then, no process was applied to continue the contract or maintain continuation of the contract.    
Recently, the government had extended the tenure of the project based on the recommendation made by a taskforce formed under the leadership of the then Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Bishownath Poudel.    
Ratan Bhandari, an advocate of Nepal’s water resources and energy sector, had filed the writ petition at the SC demanding to scrap the government decision to give more time for GMR. -- RSS