India has renewed the electricity export permission to Nepal only for three months.

The existing agreement, which was renewed a year ago, expires on March 31.

The Indian side agreed to the renewal three days before the expiry date even though the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) had been following up on the matter regularly for the last three months.

According to NEA spokesman Chandan Kumar Ghosh, the authority has been informed about the three-month extension from the Indian side.

"The agreement has been renewed until June 30," he said. It has been agreed to import 500 megawatts of electricity through the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur cross-border transmission line and 54 megawatts via Tanakpur."

The NEA however had sought permission to import 650MW through the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line and 54MW via Tanakpur.

Officials at the energy ministry said that Nepal may face 10-hour-long load-shedding if it can't import around 600MW of electricity from India during the dry season. Nabinraj Singh, spokesperson for the energy ministry, said that the import permission would be in effect till June-end. "After June 15, we will start exporting energy," he said.

Earlier, Nepal was allowed to import energy at any time as needed. But this time around, Nepal will be allowed to import 554MW of electricity only during 6am to 6pm. "With this arrangement, we will have an electricity shortage and the industrial estates may face shortage mainly during the peak hours," the ministry official said.

According to the official, Nepal is still lobbying with India for supply during additional hours.

According to NEA officials, Nepal will need around 2,000MW in next two months whereas the total domestic production will be only around 1,400MW as the water levels in the rivers recedes significantly during the dry season.