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The Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower, Nepal’s largest hydroelectric project, came into commercial operation in August 2021. But the power of the 456MW Hydroelectric project has not been supplied to Kathmandu valley, the largest power consumption center of the country, as the planned Tamakoshi–Kathmandu 220/400 kV Transmission Line Project is yet to be completed. The preparations for the development of the transmission line project started in 2012 and its construction commenced in 2016. In 2020, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) terminated the contract with a Chinese joint venture of Guangxi Transmission and Substation Construction Company and Shenzhen Clou Electronics citing the slow pace of work on the project which was supposed to be completed by May 2019. Through a bidding process, the project development contract was handed over to an Indian company Larsen and Toubro Limited, India. “The contractor has completed most of the works but the project remains incomplete as local residents at Bojhani area of Shankarapur Municipality-3, Kathmandu, have been obstructing construction of a substation there”, said Tara Prasad Pradhan, Deputy Managing Director of NEA. “All the project area residents whose lands have been acquired by the project have already received compensation willingly. But a group of locals has been protesting against the construction of a power substation there which was planned long ago,” he added. In the last couple of days, the locals have been protesting against the planned substation arguing that NEA acquired their lands without consultations. Surya Bahadur Tamang, Chairperson of Ward-3, Shankarapur, himself has been leading the protest. The government has mobilized police to protect the acquired lands and the equipment of the contractor. “We don’t know who instigated the protests against the construction of the substation. Maybe there are political actors who have promised to shift the location of the substation somewhere else,” said Pradhan. “It is a very important transmission line to bring power from the Upper Tamakoshi project to Kathmandu. We are now sending power from Upper Tamakoshi to Dhalkebar though the original plan was to bring the power directly to Kathmandu,” said Pradhan. NEA has prepared a master plan for developing transmission infrastructure for Kathmandu valley considering the electricity demand as late as 2050. As per the plan, there will be a power demand of 3,100 MW by 2050 but the current infrastructure is only able to sustain the power demand of 500 MW. According to Pradhan, no single transmission line has been connected to the power distribution center of the capital valley with a capacity of 400kV or more till now. The Tamakoshi-Kathmandu Transmission Line will be the only power line with a 400kV capacity that can carry more power than existing ones. He said that the Indian contractor now just needs to complete the construction of the proposed substation at Bojhani and four transmission towers at the Lapsiphedi area of Kathmandu. "Unfortunately, the construction of all these very important power transmission infrastructures has been halted due to protests from the locals of the project areas," he said. However, the Tamakoshi-Kathmandu Transmission Line is not the only transmission line project that is facing obstruction during construction. NEA officials say hardly any transmission line project has been constructed without obstruction either from the locals or the other government entities such as forest authorities. Prolonged delay in verdicts by the court has also resulted in cost and time overruns in many transmission projects. For example, the under-construction 220kV Bharatpur-Bardaghat Transmission Line Project has not been completed as the locals of Dumikas, Nawalparasi have been obstructing the construction of two transmission towers in the area. NEA said it has already installed 244 of the 246 towers of the 74-km transmission line, but due to obstruction to the installation of two towers, it has not been able to transmit power at 220kv capacity. The existing 132kv Bharatpur-Bardaghat transmission line can only carry a maximum of 80MW of power and it has been difficult for the NEA to send more power without a higher capacity power line. The power utility says developing high-capacity power lines across Nepal is vital to ensuring a reliable power supply across the country and to ensure a reliable cross-border power trade. NEA officials say that locals have been obstructing the installation of the two towers with their unreasonable demands. As per compensation rules, NEA provides compensation of 20 percent of the value of the land that falls within 15 meters on either side of a transmission line. But locals of Dumkibas are demanding compensation for the land falling within 50 meters on either side. The project’s work was stalled for over a year after the Supreme Court in April 2021 issued an interim order to stop work on the two last towers. But on June 27 last year, the court vacated the interim order paving the way for the project to resume the erection of the transmission towers. “Despite the court order, the locals have been obstructing the transmission projects and we have not been able to work on the project implementation,” said an NEA official. The 400 kV Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa transmission project also faced prolonged delay. On January 30, 2019, Sarita Giri, a former minister, filed a petition at the Supreme Court demanding a change in the route of the transmission line in the Padariya area of Lahan Municipality and the court issued an interim order accordingly. It took more than three years for the Supreme Court to take a decision on the matter as the court in early June last year vacated the interim order opening the door for continuing the construction work on the project. The NEA official said that it is preparing to resume work on the project. The 220kV Bharatpur-Bardaghat transmission line project and 400kV Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa are part of the World Bank-funded Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project. The World Bank discontinued its funding in November 2021 for the two transmission lines, citing continued delay despite repeated deadline extensions. Before it withdrew funding, the multilateral lender had extended the deadline several times. Obstructions from locals and legal cases against the project led to continued delays. The 132kV double-circuit Solu Corridor Transmission Line is another example of how transmission projects face massive hurdles in Nepal. It came into operation only in December 2021 after years of delays. Obstruction of locals of Katari, Udayapur had delayed construction works of the project. Likewise, the 132kV Singati-Lamosangu Transmission Line also faced hurdles from locals but has now been completed in June 2021 after 11 years. NEA officials accept the low compensation prices of lands as a reason behind the discontent of residents of the project affected areas. “As the compensation is not fully provided for the land that falls under the transmission line, land owners don’t want to lose their lands to the transmission projects,” said the NEA official. “ We don’t provide full compensation for such lands as we don’t acquire them. But the value of lands over which the transmission lines pass through dips as they are not accepted as collateral in the banks.”

The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has slashed the prices of petroleum products. The revised rates would be effective from midnight. The state owned monopoly has reduced Rs 3 per litre in petrol, diesel and kerosene. As per the new price list, petrol would cost Rs 175 per litre. Likewise, the price of diesel and kerosene have been fixed at Rs 172 per litre. Earlier, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had directed the NOC to reduce the prices of petroleum products.

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Media Action Nepal (MAN), an organization which has been working for the last eight years to promote freedom of expression and media development in Nepal, has established press awards to recognize the invaluable work of journalists, press freedom advocates and media educators. Named ‘Media Action Nepal-Press Awards’, MAN, a member of the Media Freedom Coalition-Consultative Network, has established the honors to acknowledge exceptional individuals active in the fields of journalism, media training and education, media development and protection of media rights. The awards will be conferred every year under three categories – journalism, press freedom and media education – on MAN’s foundation day, that is, December 21, and will carry a purse of Rs. 25,000 each. They will also include a certificate of appreciation. According to MAN Chairperson Laxman Datt Pant, this award is pertinent step to appreciate and encourage the development of a free and responsible media in Nepal. “At a time when independent journalism continues to come under attack from many visible and invisible forces and media’s credibility is regularly questioned by various elements of the state and society, we hope this award shines a light on the distinguished individuals doing their best to foster a media environment that can speak truth to power, is empowered with the rights it needs to ask the necessary questions and is accountable to the people,” he said. In 2023 however, as the first year of conferral, MAN will provide a single award incorporating all three categories. This year’s award will be conferred on senior advocate Borna Bahadur Karki. Karki is the former chairperson of Press Council Nepal and has been a champion of freedom of expression and media freedom for many years. During his time in the Press Council, as well as before and after that, he has contributed to the strengthening of Nepal’s media sector in many ways. He will be awarded amid a program to be organized in Kathmandu on Monday, January 10. Since its inception in 2015, MAN has been contributing to the cause of independent and responsible press through research, dialogue, advocacy, publication and documentation and capacity building of journalists in collaboration with national and international organizations. It is present in all seven provinces of the nation and has worked with over 5,000 Nepali journalists to date. It has also maintained an international presence, most notably through the Media Freedom Coalition and continues to present Nepal’s media perspective and raise its voices at the global level.

Hackers stole the email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users and posted them on an online hacking forum, a security researcher said Wednesday, Reuters reported.

The breach “will unfortunately lead to a lot of hacking, targeted phishing and doxxing,” Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybersecurity-monitoring firm Hudson Rock, wrote on LinkedIn. He called it “one of the most significant leaks I’ve seen.”

Twitter has not commented on the report, which Gal first posted about on social media on Dec. 24, nor responded to inquiries about the breach since that date. It was not clear what action, if any, Twitter has taken to investigate or remediate the issue.

Reuters could not independently verify the data on the forum was authentic and came from Twitter. Screenshots of the hacker forum, where the data appeared on Wednesday, have circulated online.

Troy Hunt, creator of breach-notification site Have I Been Pwned, viewed the leaked data and said on Twitter that it seemed “pretty much what it’s been described as.”

There were no clues to the identity or location of the hacker or hackers behind the breach. It may have taken place as early as 2021, which was before Elon Musk took over ownership of the company last year, according to Reuters.

Claims about the size and scope of the breach initially varied with early accounts in December saying 400 million email addresses and phone numbers were stolen.

A major breach at Twitter may interest regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. The Data Protection Commission in Ireland, where Twitter has its European headquarters, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission have been monitoring the Elon Musk-owned company for compliance with European data protection rules and a U.S. consent order respectively.

Messages left with the two regulators were not immediately returned on Thursday.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal held a meeting with CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal and Janata Samajwadi Party Chairman Upendra Yadav on Sunday. During the meeting held at the Parliamentary Party office of CPN (Maoist Center) in Singhadurbar this morning, the leaders discussed vote of confidence and other contemporary political issues, according to the Prime Minister's Secretariat. On the occasion, PM Dahal, also the Chairperson of the Maoist Centre, urged both Nepal and Yadav to give him the vote of confidence to continue his prime ministerial position. Dahal, who was elected the PM with the support of 169 lawmakers on 25 December, is scheduled to take the vote of confidence on Tuesday. There is a provision in the Constitution of Nepal that the PM should take the vote of confidence within 30 days of being appointed to the post.  

Rastriya Prajatantra Party Chairman Rajendra Lingden and Janamat Party Chairman CK Raut held a meeting with CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli in Balkot on Sunday. During the meeting held this morning, they discussed power sharing, contemporary political issues and the vote of confidence to be taken by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Oli told Lingden and Raut that Prime Minister Dahal should be given the vote of confidence. Saying that they made Dahal the prime minister by breaking the ruling coalition, Oli urged them to give the vote of confidence to Dahal without thinking of another alternative, a source at Balkot said. Prime Minister Dahal is confident that Oli will give him the vote of confidence. The trio also discussed the Common Minimum Program of the government. The prime minister needs 138 seats for a majority in the 275-member federal Parliament. Prime Minister Dahal, who is also the Chairman of the CPN (Maoist Center) has the support of more than 169 lawmakers.

The price of gold has increased by Rs 1,000 per tola in the domestic market on Sunday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 103, 300 per tola today. The gold was traded at Rs 102, 300 per tola on Friday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 102, 800 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 15 and is being traded at Rs 1,365 per tola today.