Nepal has sought Indian government’s help to upgrade substations at Inaruwa and Hetauda which are key components of Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa electricity transmission line project.

The Nepali side informally tabled the proposal seeking a line of credit (LOC) from Export Import (Exim) Bank of India to upgrade the substations to 400kv from existing 220kv during a meeting held to review the LOC here on Tuesday.

Nepal, however, is yet to make an official request. “We will formally request India via Finance Ministry in the near future,” said Energy Ministry Joint Secretary Dinesh Kumar Ghimire who participated in the review meeting.

Nepal is about to complete upgradation of 220kv substation at Dhalkebar to 400kv, but unless the substation at Hetauda is upgraded, the transmission line can’t be charged at 400 KVA. Similar is the case with the Inaruwa substation.

“As we are upgrading the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa transmission line to 400 KVA, the upgradation of both the substations is necessary,” said Rajeev Sharma, deputy managing director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) who also participated in the meeting. “Once the substations and transmission line are upgraded, it can transmit around 3000MW electricity.”

At the meeting, the participants of both the countries reviewed the progress report of various projects financed under LOC extended by India. Nepal is currently implementing projects worth $ 1.65 billion under Indian LOC. The participants also discussed expediting new projects worth $340.22 million. Nepal and India recently signed a pact to implement 16 projects — 15 roads and one bridge.

Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Ramesh Lekhak and Indian Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu on Sunday signed an agreement to implement those projects.

Ajit Gupte, joint secretary at India’s Ministry of External Affairs led the Indian side in the LOC review meeting, while Baikuntha Aryal, joint secretary at Finance Ministry, led the Nepali side.