Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that Rs 853 billion will be required for the development of hydropower projects, transmission line projects, and distribution networks in the next five years. In a presentation to newly appointed Energy Minister Shakti Bahadur Basnet by NEA Managing Director Kul Man Ghising, the state-owned power utility has estimated a capital requirement of Rs 437 billion for under-construction projects while Rs 853 billion will be required for both under-construction and planned projects According to the presentation obtained by the Annapurna Express, the largest amount will be required for transmission projects. It will require Rs 548 billion for under-construction and planned transmission line projects in the next five years followed by Rs 162 billion for the generation of electricity through its subsidiary companies.

NEA said that it is seeking Rs 65 billion for the generation of power. As much as Rs 56 billion will be required for the distribution while Rs 19 billion will be needed for engineering and energy efficiency.

According to NEA, the funding gap is one of the biggest challenges for the power utility body in developing hydropower projects, transmission line projects, and distribution networks. Managing a huge fund gap for generation, transmission, and distribution Infrastructure Development has been mentioned as one of the major challenges in Ghising's presentation. “The existing resources are not adequate and managing resources is challenging as the government is failing to collect enough revenue,” said a senior NEA official. “Without mobilizing soft loans from the donors, it will be difficult to raise sufficient resources.” According to the official, another challenge has been to spend the available budget. “Because of the issue of land acquisition and forest clearance, among others, project implementation has been difficult,” the official said. NEA has planned to add 10,874km to its existing network of transmission lines in the next five years starting from the beginning of the current fiscal year. By mid-March, Nepal added 219 km to its network while 3114km is expected to be added from under-construction projects while the extension of 7541km has been planned from the planned projects. Big transmission infrastructure is being planned in and around the Kathmandu Valley. The state-owned power utility has a master plan for transmission infrastructure for Kathmandu Valley considering the electricity demands as late as 2050. As per the plan, there will be a power demand of 3100MW by 2050. The current infrastructure is okay for sustaining the power demands of just 500MW. The NEA has planned 132kV and 220kV underground transmission lines within the Kathmandu Valley. Likewise, a 220kV transmission ring around the hills of the Kathmandu Valley has also been planned on government-owned land. It will also have to generate resources for constructing three more high-capacity cross-border transmission lines with India. According to the NEA, it needs resources of Rs 198.84 billion in the next five years for the purpose of rural electrification, substation upgrading and automation, system reinforcement and loss reduction, reliability improvement, and smart meter installation. NEA is also involved in developing 100MW Tamakoshi 5, 60MW Modi, 635MW Dudhkoshi Storage, 1061MW Upper Arun, and 210MW Chainpur Seti hydropower projects. The combined cost of the development of these projects has been estimated at USD Rs 588.11 billion.