January 7: Nepal and India have agreed for cooperation on eight different issues related to energy sector.    
The 11th meeting of Nepal-India Energy Secretary-level Joint Steering Committee that concluded in Chitwan on Sunday has agreed on of strengthening the electricity transmission system.    
Nabin Raj Singh, joint secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, said the meeting discussed various agenda prepared by the Joint-secretary level Joint Taskforce.    
Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Gopal Prasad Sigdel, and Secretary at India's Ministry of Energy, Pankaj Agrawal, co-chaired the meeting.    
However, most of the topics agreed upon shall be finalized by technical groups, as these agreements are concerned more with technical issues.    
The meeting made decision on principle only since most of the topics are more technical, according to the Nepali officials attending the meeting.    

Both sides have agreed on expanding the capacity of the Dhalkebar-Mujaffarpur Inter-country Transmission Line to 1,000 megawatts. The two sides agreed to construct the required infrastructures at Dhalkebar sub-station for this purpose. At present, the export and import of 800 megawatts electricity is taking place from this transmission line.    
A Joint Technical Committee will study and make necessary decision on the topic of utilizing this transmission line in its maximum capacity. Nepal has also been paying the transmission fees for utilizing the full capacity of this transmission line.    
Similarly, the Joint Technical Committee shall also take the necessary decision regarding determining the capacity of electricity that can be transmitted via the Dhalkebar-Sitamadhi 400-kV transmission line being constructed by the Indian company, Satluj Vidhyut Nigam. The Indian company is constructing this transmission line for exporting electricity to be produced from the Arun III Hydropower Project. This company, which is constructing the Arun-III project, has also taken responsibility for constructing other projects as well. It will take long until these projects are completed.    
Likewise, the meeting has agreed that the Joint Technical Committee will conduct a study on the feasibility of exporting power up to 200 megawatts through the 132 kV Tanakpur Mahendranagar transmission line or other high-voltage capacity transmission lines.    
The meeting has approved the process and procedure on electricity export and import between Nepal and India during the monsoon via the existing transmission lines of 132 kV capacity or less by using the power transmission system of the neighbouring Indian states. These process and procedure were prepared by the Central Electricity Authority of India in coordination with Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and other agencies of India.    
Discussions were also held for a separate tripartite agreement, in accordance with the Power Import and Export Guidelines of India, among NEA, the NTPC Vidhyut Vyapar Nigam of India and the Power Development Board of Bangladesh for export of 40 megawatts electricity from Nepal to Bangladesh by using India's transmission system.    
Based on this discussion, the necessary mechanism would be established for the three-nation partnership.

These agreements related to transmission line and energy sector were reached in the context of Minister of External Affairs of India Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar's visit to Nepal on January 4 and 5.    
The Agreement Between the Government of Nepal and the Government of India on Long Term Power Trade was signed during the visit of Minister of External Affairs of India, opening the door for the export of 10,000 megawatts electricity to India from Nepal in 10 years. -- RSS