Cadres of Communist Party of Nepal, a splinter Maoist party, detonated crude bombs at the sites of Upper Karnali Hydropower Project and Arun III Hydropower Project on Saturday, as part of their campaign to attack India-funded projects that they say are not in the country’s interest.
The explosion at a recently renovated office of Arun III, a 900-megawatt project funded by the Indian government, at a remote village in the Sankhuwasabha district in northeastern Nepal damaged two rooms, said police inspector Bed Prakash Gautam.
“We are still investigating. The area is very far from the nearest settlement,” he said.
The party’s cadres also detonated a crude bomb at the dam site of Upper Karnali, a 900 MW project in the Dailekh district of western Nepal, English newspaper The Kathmandu Post reported on Monday.
The GMR company, an Indian infrastructure company funds the Upper Karnali hydropower project. Its office in the Surkhet district, down from the site, also suffered damage, the newspaper reported. There were no casualties in the attacks.
“Last year, our party had taken action against Arun III because it’s a project against our country’s interest. But they didn’t pay any attention to our demand,” the head of the party’s eastern command who went by nom de guerre ‘Birahi’ said in a statement on Sunday.
“We urge all concerned people to revoke the anti-national Arun III project and to build hydropower projects by using Nepal’s labor, capital technology,” the statement said.
Officials have hailed the two projects, whose combined cost reaches $2.4 billion, as keys to reduce the trade deficit with India and realize the Himalayan nation’s hydropower potential.
But the attacks from the radical group have dealt a blow to the impoverished country’s attempt to attract foreign direct investment.
Regional rival India and China are Nepal’s two major investors. In February last year, the Indian government approved an $853.8 million investment proposal to state-owned Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited, the developer of the Arun III project.
China has invested in infrastructure development including roads and airports in Nepal. It has also invested in a 750 MW hydropower project in the country’s west, but work on the project is yet to begin.
Nepal has the potential to generate at least 40,000 MW of hydroelectricity, but its current production is only 950 MW.
By Deepak Adhikari in Kathmandu, Nepal
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr