August 29: The government has given top priority to the construction of transmission lines for better transmission and distribution of electricity. The return on the investment made by the government in the construction of the transmission network has gradually started to be seen.

The Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation has said that the construction of the transmission line has been expedited with high priority. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), which is the implementing agency, has also given priority to the construction of transmission lines.

According to the authority, 3,118 kilometres of circuit transmission lines have been added to the electricity transmission system of Nepal in the last nine years.

Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Shakti Bahadur Basnet has directed the authorities and concerned agencies to proceed with the construction of the transmission lines at a fast pace and to be effective in solving the problems encountered in it.

The NEA is working with high priority of electrification and reliable supply of electricity to the consumers. It has widely advanced the expansion and improvement of infrastructure for transmission and distribution system.

The authority is constructing transmission lines and substation projects through the Directorate of Transmission and Project Management. Transmission and distribution lines and substations are required to deliver the electricity produced from the power plant to the customer's home.

In the last nine years, the capacity of the grid substation has reached 8,867 MVA. Nine years ago, i.e. in the fiscal year 2071/72, the capacity of the substation was only 2,132 MVA, but in the year 2079/80, the capacity of the substation increased by 6,735 MVA.

In the year 2071/72, electricity was transmitted only from 66 and 132 kV, but now 66, 132, 220 and 400 kV lines are operating. In the year 2071/72, there were 2,624 circuit kilometres of transmission line, and now 3,118 circuit kilometres have been added to make it 5,742 circuit kilometres in the year 2079/80.

Kulman Ghising, Executive Director of Nepal Electricity Authority, said that the improvement and strengthening of the system's infrastructure has been carried out in a planned manner since last year to address the consumer's complaints regarding abrupt power outage from time to time.

Ghising said that the NEA is facing problems in the construction of the transmission lines mainly due to the obstruction created by the locals. In addition, land acquisition and use of forest area land and tree cutting are also some other significant problems.

"On the one hand, it takes a long time for approval of land use and tree felling in the forest area, and on the other hand, a large amount of money has to be paid as compensation to another agency of the government. Due to this, the duration of the project is not only getting longer, but the price of our produced electricity is becoming more expensive," said Ghising.

"There is an urgent need to declare the next ten years as the country's development decade and to comprehensively amend or replace the current laws and regulations, to facilitate land use in the forest area. The programs announced through the current year's budget should be implemented quickly," he said further.

Mentioning that the master plan of transmission and substation structure has been prepared by dividing the major cities of the country including Kathmandu into 11 'clusters' to meet the electricity demand until 2050 AD, Ghising said that the construction will be gradually carried forward by ensuring resources for these projects.