KATHMANDU, Mar 13 (NNN-XINHUA) – A Bhutanese newspaper, recently published a report reviewing its coverage on troubles in Bhutan-India joint hydropower projects since 2012.
In its story published in Apr, 2013, the Bhutanese focused on The Punatsangchu I project, which was beset with higher project costs, after relocating the dam site permitted by Indian consultants, and later was stalled over a bank weakness, the newspaper said, in a report released in late Feb.
It then wrote another story in July, 2015, about a total of 1.4 billion Ngultrums (around 18.4 million U.S. dollars) “in irregularities and overpayment” for the project.
As India’s Guidelines on Cross Border Trade of Electricity restrict Bhutan’s entry into Indian energy trading markets and limit the types of investment in Bhutan’s hydropower sector, the Bhutanese newspaper has written eight stories in this regard since Feb 11, 2017, and the outcry sparked in Bhutan thereafter, resulted in India making major amendments to the guidelines, the report read.
On Feb 6, 2021, “it was found that the dam site of the much delayed P-1 project would have to be abandoned,” after a cost of 23 billion Ngultrums (around 301 million U.S. dollars) “with the proposal of building a barrage site,” said the report.
Over the years, the newspaper also “reported extensively in the various difficulties caused in formalising Joint Venture power projects, due to unreasonable demands” by the Indian side.– NNN-XINHUA
