Decades On, No Light Flows From West Seti

About 30,000 residents of the Chwangadh area of ​​Baitadi, who have been waiting for the West Seti project for 40 years, have been forced to live in darkness.

As many as 30,000 residents of Chwangadh area of Baitadi have been forced to live in darkness after the electricity poles erected by the Sigas Rural Municipality for the expansion of the national transmission line at a cost of Rs. 10 million have started collapsing.

Bir Singh Dhami of Sigas Rural Municipality-1, Irana said that electricity could not be provided in Sigas village of Chwangadh area despite spending millions of rupees from the government coffer for the last three fiscal years.

Dhami said, “The national transmission line has not been connected in Chwangadh yet. Three years ago, the rural municipality had promised to bring national grid. The wires are broken. The people's representatives have not shown interest even when the collapsed poles and electric wires are being damaged. Our dream of lighting electricity bulbs is still unfulfilled.”

Gagan Singh Dhami, chairman of Sigas Rural Municipality-1, said that the municipality has already spent Rs. 10 million to connect with national transmission line after the delay in the construction of West Seti Hydropower Project.

Ward Chairman Dhami said, “About Rs. 10 million has been spent for the installation of electricity poles in last three fiscal years. The electricity poles installed by construction committee are collapsing and wires are also broken.”

Locals said that the municipality has formed a construction committee under the leadership of the party leader to supply electricity to Sigas Rural Municipality.

In the last three fiscal years, the villagers have formed a power generation committee under the chairmanship of Lokraj Bhatta, a local leader of RPP, Ram Chandra Airi of the Nepali Congress and Gangaram Bhatta of the CPN-UML to supply electricity to Sigas Rural Municipality, said Dhami.

Baldev Airi, a local worker, said that the construction committee formed to supply electricity to the village has not even paid the wages of the workers.

Airi, who was transporting electricity poles and wires, said, “We have been using oil lamps since the time of my father and grandfather. West Seti will not be built, now we have been told to expand the national transmission line, but we have not been paid for three years. So far, neither electricity has been supplied nor workers have been paid.”

Another worker Surendra Airi expressed his dissatisfaction over the failure of the Consumers Committee to pay the wages of workers.
Workers have complained that no hearing has been held even after lodging a complaint at the local ward office and police post three times.

Although the municipality has allocated a required budget to electrify the Sigas Rural Municipality, which is deprived of electricity, it has not been able to turn on the lights on time due to the weakness of the consumers, said chairman of Sigas Rural Municipality Hari Singh Dhami.

He said, "As we are talking to the power distribution centre Baitadi this year, the lights will be on soon after repairing the fallen poles.”

On July 7, 1994, the government signed an agreement with Australia's Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation Limited (SMEC) to build the West Seti Hydropower Project to generate 360 ​​MW of electricity by constructing a dam at West Seti in Dhungadh, Sigas Rural Municipality-5, Baitadi.

The government then signed an agreement with the multinational Chinese company Three Gorges International Corporation.

The Ministry of Energy had signed an agreement with Three Gorges on February 29, 2012 to complete the construction work in five years.

As per the agreement, the construction work would start in 2014 and would be completed in 2019.

The Rising Nepal