Minister for Energy, Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat, said, "We have agreed in principle to set up the headquarters in Kathmandu. However, the decision as to who will head the PDA has yet to be finalized."
"It would be better if the person chosen to head the project is selected through competition," Mahat told myrepublica.com.
Dr Mahat said that he held an elaborate discussion with Indian envoy Rakesh Sood regarding the setting up of the PDA office in Kathmandu. "During my meeting with the ambassador, there was a clear understanding that the headquarters will now be based in Kathmandu," Dr Mahat said.
During the Joint Meeting held in March, differences surfaced between the two sides on twin issues of where to set up the office and who will head the project.
"Going by our experience in Koshi and Gandaki, and respecting the sentiments of the Nepali people, we proposed that the Pancheshwar office be set up in Nepal," Dilli Bahadur Singh, the project manager of Pancheshwar multi-purpose project, said.
Singh added that the Nepal side has proposed choosing a technical engineer with management background to head the project on a rotation basis every three years. "It would be better if the head of the project is taken on three-year rotational basis," Singh said.
Singh was of the view that a "check and balance" system will be enforced if the head of the project is selected on such a rotation basis from both countries for alternative terms.
The project seeks to build a storage dam on the Mahakali River at the boundary of Uttarakhand state of India and Nepal. Nearly 80 per cent of the catchment area for the project would be in India and the rest in Nepal.
The Mahakali River Treaty was signed between the two countries in February 1996, but it came into force only in June 1997. The Pancheshwar project will also facilitate regulated release of water contributing to development of irrigation and control flooding.
akanshya@myrepublica.com
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