India is expected to increase export of power to Nepal by around 145 MW shortly from Katiya-Kusaha and Raxual-Parwanipur cross-border transmission lines.

Construction of those two transmission lines were completed last month. Soon after the completion of construction, Nepal had requested India to provide electricity without any delay.

Last week Nepali Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay had urged Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal to expedite the process.  

In a statement on Wednesday, Indian Power Ministry said: “Export of power to Nepal is expected to increase by around 145 MW shortly over 132 kV Katiya (Bihar) – Kusaha (Nepal) and 132 kV Raxaul (Bihar)– Parwanipur (Nepal).”

A team of Nepal Electricity Authority will visit India to finalise the tariff and modality of power trade between two countries. 

Currently, there are some disputes between two countries regarding the tariff. India had been exporting around 190 MW to Nepal over 12 cross border interconnections at 11 KV, 33 KV and 132 KV level.  

“The export of power to Nepal further increased by around 145 MW with commissioning of Muzaffarpur (India) – Dhalkhebar (Nepal) 400kV line (being operated at 132 kV) in 2016,” read the statement. 

For the first time, India has turned around from a net importer of electricity to net exporter of electricity.

”During the current year 2016-17 (April to February 2017), India has exported around 5,798 Million Units to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar which is 213 Million units more than the import of around 5,585 Million units from Bhutan. Export to Nepal and Bangladesh increased 2.5 and 2.8 times respectively in last three years,” the statement further read.

Ever since the cross border trade of electricity started in mid-eighties, India has been importing power from Bhutan and marginally exporting to Nepal in radial mode at 33 kV and 132 kV from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. On an average Bhutan has been supplying around 5,000- 5500 Million units to India.