Completion of the under-construction Bharatpur-Bardaghat transmission line is set to be delayed further as residents at Dumkibas of Nawalparasi (Susta East) are continuing to obstruct the construction of two pylons.

The Supreme Court, on June 27 this year, allowed the construction of two remaining towers at Dumkibas of Binaya Tribeni Rural Municipality, vacating the earlier interim order against erection of these transmission towers.

In April 2021, the Supreme Court had issued an interim order not to build two pylons of the 74km transmission project as demanded by the locals of Dumkibas, Nawalparasi.

As a result, the project remained incomplete even though the Nepal Electricity Authority has already completed erecting 244 of the 246 pylons.

“Local people are not allowing us to start works to construct the two towers despite the court verdict,” said Santosh Sah, chief of Bharatpur-Bardaghat Transmission Line Project.

This transmission line project is a part of the World Bank-funded Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project under the NEA.

“The local people are making demands which we cannot fulfil as per the existing laws,” said Sah. “They are demanding that we have to buy entire lands under the power lines to be constructed there. As per the law, we don’t buy such land but compensate 20 percent of the total value of the lands under the transmission lines.”

According to him, the project can compensate locals for lands up to 30 metres left and right under the power lines on the basis of 20 percent of total value of the land to be determined. “The locals are demanding compensation for more land around the transmission lines,” Sah said.

Since the land under the transmission line cannot be used for any purpose other than agriculture and the compensation offered by the government is generally less than the market value of land, locals do not want to provide land to transmission line projects.

NEA officials said that their efforts to find a compromise solution so far have been unsuccessful. “We held talks three times with facilitation of the World Bank,” Shyam Kumar Yadav, chief of the Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project. “Separate four-five meetings were also organised with the facilitation of the chief district officer and no solution has been found yet.”

Even though the project has already erected the transmission towers in the private lands in many other areas, it has failed to do so in Dumkibas for years.

“In fact, we have already erected 30 transmission towers out of 32 in the private lands and the locals obstructed our works only in Dumkibas area,” said Sah.

The NEA said in a statement on June 30 that the completion of this 220kV power line is vital to supply power to western part of the country from the east which will help reduce power imports from India through the bordering Tanakpur area of India.

In fact, the existing 132kv transmission line connecting the country’s eastern region with the western side has been making it difficult to supply large quantities of power from one area to another, according to the NEA.

So it said developing high capacity power lines across the country has been vital to ensuring reliable power supply across the country and to ensure reliable cross-border power trade.

NEA officials said they were making continued efforts to solve the matter with the locals peacefully. “But we cannot wait for a long time because it has already too late to complete this project,” said Yadav. “We will try to solve the matter before Tihar/Chhath festivals through dialogue with the disgruntled locals.”

The Bharatpur-Bardaghat transmission line is one of the many transmission projects that faced prolonged delay due to the issues related to land acquisition.

Soon after the June order from the Supreme Court, the NEA had charged the completed sections of the transmission line.

According to the state-owned power utility, it charged electricity on a 56km section—from Aptari substation in Bharatpur to Arun Khola substation in Nawalparasi—of the 74km 220kV transmission line in June-end. From Arun Khola, power was transmitted on the old 132kv transmission line to Bardaghat.

Currently, there is a 132kV transmission line from Bharatpur to Bardaghat which can carry a maximum 80MW only, according to the NEA.

“With the construction of the 220kV transmission line, the NEA will be able to supply power to western parts of the country and this will help reduce power imports from India through the Tanakpur area,” NEA Managing Director Kul Man Ghising said in a statement on June 30.

Like the Bharatpur-Bardaghat Transmission Line, another 400kV Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa line also faced a prolonged court case which delayed the construction works in this project too.

In early July this year, the Supreme Court paved the way for the construction of pylons at Padariya in Lahan Municipality of Siraha district by scrapping a petition filed three years ago.

On January 30, 2019, Sarita Giri, a former minister, had filed a petition at the Supreme Court demanding a change in the route of the transmission line in the Padariya area and the court had issued an interim order accordingly.

With the court not conducting a single hearing for more than three years after issuing the interim order, the construction of the vital transmission line was affected, according to the authority. This is also part of the World Bank-funded Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project.

Owing to local obstructions, the NEA had extended the project deadline several times.

As a result, the key financier of these two projects—the World Bank—discontinued its funding in November last year, according to the NEA.