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On Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra met his Nepali counterpart Sewa Lamsal here.
A press note issued on this meeting mentioned the two sides discussed “multifaceted cooperation”, but it did not include any reference to the PMP, which is by far the biggest bilateral power project conceived between the two sides.
Pancheshwar Project
The Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project is a proposed dam and hydroelectric power project on the Mahakali River.
Which forms the border between Nepal and India.
The project would be located in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand, India and the Darchula district of Nepal.
The PMP would be a run-of-the-river project with an installed capacity of 6,480 megawatts (MW).
The project would consist of a 315-meter (1,033-foot) high concrete gravity dam, a 600-meter (1,969-foot) long headrace tunnel, and an
underground powerhouse with six 1,080 MW generating units.
The PMP would generate an estimated 10,671 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity per year.
The project would also provide irrigation benefits to an area of 240,000 hectares (593,000 acres) in India and 130,000 hectares (321,000 acres) in Nepal.
The PMP has been under consideration for several decades, but the project has been delayed due to a number of factors, including disagreements between Nepal and India over the sharing of benefits from the project.
In 2018, Nepal and India signed a new agreement to revive the PMP.
The agreement is expected to pave the way for the construction of the project.
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