Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Drilling at Saptakoshi High-Dam halted

Following strong objections from UCPN-Maoist, CPN-Maoist and other local stakeholders, drilling works being carried out for detailed survey of the Saptakoshi High Dam has been stalled for the last seven days.
After the political parties and stakeholders handed over a letter threatening to halt survey works, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), which had been drilling at the project site, halted works. Drilling is an important part of the survey.
Since the beginning of survey, Maoist-affiliated groups and other local stakeholders have been obstructing survey works saying the Saptakoshi dam is not in the interests of Nepal.
On April 8, members of Kirati Rastriya Mukti Morcha under the CPN-Maoist had handed over a letter asking the survey team to halt all works related to construction of Saptakoshi High Dam. They had also demanded to scrap the agreement between Nepal and India for the construction of the high-dam.
“Following protests by local stakeholders, we were compelled to move drilling equipment from the construction site to a safe place,” said Pravin Aryal, chief of Nepal-India Saptakoshi High Dam Multipurpose Project, adding, the drilling machines have been kept at power house in Chatara.

Source : Republica

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