December 22: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Friday inaugurated the Inaruwa Substation, which is considered one of the important projects for strengthening power transmission and distribution system of Nepal.    
Constructed at Bhokraha Narsingh Rural Municipality-4 of Sunsari district, the 400-Kv substation is one of the largest substations constructed in the country.  The second largest substation based on Gas Insulated System (GIS) was charged on second week of October.    
Minister for Water Resources and Irrigation, Shakti Bahadur Basnet, former minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, high-officials of the Energy Ministry, Executive Director of the Nepal Electricity Authority, Kul Man Ghising, among others were present during the inauguration ceremony.    
There are three power transformers of 315-MVA in the 400/220 kV Inaruwa substation constructed under 400-kVHetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa substation expansion project. This substation has the capacity to transmit around 4,000 MW electricity after the completion of 400 kV Inaruwa-Dhalkebar transmission line.    
NEA Executive Director Ghising said Inaruwa substation is the backbone for transmitting electricity produced from hydropower projects at different districts of Koshi Province to the national grid, which will then be consumed domestically while the surplus electricity will be exported to India.

Executive Director Ghising further said that the Inaruwa-Purnia 400 KV cross-country transmission line has been proposed for power trade with India and the Inaruwa-Anarmani 400 KV transmission line has been proposed for trade among Nepal-India and Bangladesh from this sub-station.    
The Inaruwa sub-station, according to him, has become another huge electricity centre to supply electricity from east to west within the country and export to India besides regional power trade.     
Moreover, the sub-station would be significant to supply additional electricity to the industries within the Morang-Sunsari Industrial Corridor. The electricity generated from Arun and Tamor rivers and their tributaries would be linked to the Inaruwa Sub-Station through Koshi Corridor 220 KC transmission line.    
The NEA said that the Inaruwa Sub-Station has been built in such a way that it can be expanded in future.    
Various factors such as inundation, COVID-19 pandemic and prohibitory order and lack of timely availability of tools and technicians among others had adversely affected the sub-station construction process. -- RSS