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21 Jun 2022 Paschim Seti Power Project

Posted at 10:03h in Daily current-affairs by khyati khare 0 Comments

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China was involved in the West Seti Hydroelectric Project for almost six years (2012 to 2018). The project will be taken over by India in 2018 after nearly four years of being outside China.
Earlier the Indian Prime Minister visited Lumbini, where he celebrated the 2566th Buddha Jayanti celebrations. Nepal has also invited India to invest in the Western Seti Hydroelectric Project.

It is a proposed 750 MW hydroelectric project to be built on the Seti River in far-western Nepal. Which has been the only blueprint for the last six decades.
Recently the government has revamped the West Seti and Seti River (SR-6) project, a joint storage project with a capacity to generate 1,200 MW of electricity.
Its storage or reservoir will be filled during the monsoon season and water will be drawn from it to generate electricity every day during the peak hours of the dry season. The Hindu Analysis
Its success is expected to restore India’s image in Nepal and give it importance in future ideas for hydroelectric projects, at a time when competition is tough. Therefore, Paschim Seti has the potential to become a defining model for Nepal-India power relations in the future.

Nepal is rich in power sources with about 6,000 rivers and an estimated capacity of 83,000 MW.
Mahakali Treaty was signed in the year 1996 for 6,480 MW generation, but India is still not able to come out with the detailed project report.
The Upper Karnali project, for which the multinational GMR has signed a contract, has not made any progress over the years. The Hindu Analysis
India has succeeded in implementing the 900 MW Arun-3 project at Sankhuwa Sabha in eastern Nepal, the foundation stone of which was laid in 2018 and which is scheduled to be completed by the year 2023. It has helped build trust in India.
During the visit of Indian Prime Minister to Nepal in 2014, he had said that India should start executing its projects on time. The Hindu Analysis
There is a provision in the Constitution of Nepal under which any treaty or agreement with any other country on natural resources will require the ratification of Parliament by at least two-thirds majority. This would also mean that any hydro projects would require government works before they could be signed and given for execution.
Nepal has a severe power shortage as it generates only about 900 MW against an installed capacity of about 2,000 MW. Though it is currently exporting 364 MW of electricity to India, it has been importing from India in the last few years.

The standoff between Nepal and India led to economic sanctions imposed in 2015 but equations changed after Oli took over as the new PM Deuba, who recently visited India, where he established fraternal relations with India.
Nepal is an important neighbor of India and holds special importance in its foreign policy due to its geographical, historical, cultural and economic ties spanning centuries. The Hindu Analysis
India and Nepal share a similar relationship in terms of Hinduism and Buddhism, with Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, located in present-day Nepal.
The two countries not only share an open border and free movement of people, but they also have close ties through marriage and family ties, popularly known as the Roti-Beti relationship.
The Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950 is the basis of the special relationship that exists between India and Nepal. The Hindu Analysis
Rivers originating in Nepal feed India’s perennial river systems with ecological and hydroelectric potential.
However, the border issue emerged in November 2019 when Nepal released a new political map, which claimed Uttarakhand’s Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh as part of Nepal’s territory. The area of Susta (West Champaran district, Bihar) can also be displayed in the new map.