Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Shakti Bahadur Basnet, has directed the bodies concerned to make preparations in order to take 'Energy Development Roadmap and Action Plan-2080' into implementation in practice.

During the meeting with chiefs and office-bearers of the ministry and its subordinate bodies at the Energy Ministry, Minister Basnet asked the bodies concerned to make preparation for the implementation of an action plan prepared for 12 years in a thematic and practical manner.

He mentioned that a clear roadmap of implementation should be found as the action plan would be forwarded as the national responsibility by approval from the cabinet soon.

The Energy Minister further said that internal consumption of electricity would be increased and surplus power would be exported.

A task force under the coordination of Joint Secretary of the Energy Ministry, Sandeep Kumar Dev, was formed on July 11 as per the ministry-level decision. The task force submitted the report before Minister Basnet on September 12.

As per the roadmap, it was necessary to make preparations as there would be a demand for 28,468 megawatts of electricity by 2035.

Emphasis was laid on the issue of coordination among inter-government bodies, and legal and institutional reforms for implementation of the action plan. The action plan has clearly mentioned the quantity of power produced from different projects within the next 12 years and the costs for the same.

A target has been set to make per capita power consumption to 1500 units by 2035 as well as to construct a 6440-circuit kilometre transmission line and making a capacity of substations of 40,000 MVA.

Secretary at the Energy Ministry, Dinesh Kumar Ghimire, Irrigation Secretary Gopal Sigdel, taskforce coordinator Dev and Deputy Executive Director Pradeep Kumar Thike were present in the meeting. (RSS)