900 MW RoR Upper Karnali Hydro Power Project & GMR

Dear all

I would like to assure all my well wishers that it is not that I will shed my own blood and give up my life right away. It will be the last recourse to stop hydrocrats (politicos, bureaucrats, policy/decision makers, commission agents of so called foreign investors) from ruining the world's most attractive hydropower site with most potential and highly cost effective which also is able to provide water and food - most essential things for human life, to serve Indian interest.

It is with heavy heart that I have to inform you all that Supreme Court too has thrown out the case that I was pleading. However, another case has been filed in Supreme Court by the local people but I am not too hopeful of the people winning the case as there are already 2 precedents (West Seti and Upper Karnali itself) in which the court delivered verdict against the national interest of Nepal. However, there is still one silver lining - we succeeded to persuade ADB which was going to finance SMEC's West Seti project to withdraw their investment which paved path for cancellation of license with SMEC for export and new MoU with Chinese company was signed under which it will be built as a multipurpose project for Nepal, both peak energy and augmented flow of water in dry season - not India.

Prof. Dr Mohan Lohani has said "Let us wait how Hon'ble Ram Saran responds to your letter." But I am not too hopeful of Ram Sharan jee understanding what the likes of me are saying. Because even now he is going about saying that present load shedding is due to cancellation of Arun III, 201 MW. I have written several articles and papers on the subject (other colleagues too have done so) and it is clear that due to cancellation of 201 MW Arun III, we now have 346 MW (KGA 144 MW, MM 70 MW, Khimit 60 MW, Bhote Koshi 36 MW, Chilime 22 MW and Modi 14 MW) which were mutually exclusive with Arun III. It is surprising that he doesn't remember the terms that were agreed with the World Bank with his own involvement - like Nepal would not have been allowed to build any other project exceeding 10 MW if Arun III was built).

I would like to end this email with a request to all my well wishers - if things go out of hand and I actually have to sacrifice my life at the altar of this proejct (which I will do at the proejct site), I wish to have presence of all of you there.

With best regards,


Sincerely,

Ratna Sansar Shrestha, FCA
Senior Water Resource Analyst
www.RatnaSansar.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Bihari Krishna Shrestha [mailto:biharishrestha@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2014 21:04
To: Ratna Sansar Shrestha
Cc: Dipak Gyawali; Gurubar Singh Thapa; Dwarika Nath Dhungel; Mohan Lohani; Madhukar SJB Rana; Madan Dahal; Christopher Butler; Matthäus Rest; Radhesh Pant; Ram Sharan Mahat
Subject: Re: 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydro Power Project & GMR

Sorry something happened to my computer and the message got sent prematurely.

I was writing about the case in the Supreme Court against the government and the GMR concerning this project. What happened to it? I think, we should file an urgent PIL against the government and obtain a stay order, leading to the redesing of the project along the lines suggested by you.

Warm regards
Bihari