Nepal, India begin joint commission meeting on water resources

KATHMANDU: Top officials of India and Nepal on Wednesday began a three-day meeting to discuss the issues related to the long-awaited Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project and other bilateral issues related to water resources.

The three-day meeting of the Secretary-level Joint Commission on Water Resources (JCWR) will discuss various water resources related issues between the two neighbouring countries, according to official sources.

The 9th JCWR meeting will discuss the issues related to the Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project and other bilateral issues related to water resources, according to sources at the Ministry of Energy and Water resources.

The first two days of the meeting of the Joint-secretary level Joint Steering Committee (JSC) will discuss the various aspects of the Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project.

The meeting on the third day will endorse the agendas approved by the JSC meetings, according to the ministry sources.

The bilateral meeting will look for a way forward for the construction of the proposed project, the high dam of Sapta Koshi and irrigation in Dodhara-Chandani, among others, according to Madhu Prasad Bhetuwal, the spokesperson at the ministry.

Last week, the foreign secretary of Nepal Bharat Raj Paudyal visited New Delhi to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Vinay Mohan Kwatra.

During his visit from September 13 to 14, the foreign secretaries of both countries reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral cooperation between India and Nepal, such as trade, transit, connectivity, infrastructure, power sector, irrigation and inundation, agriculture, investment, development cooperation, health sector cooperation, culture, and people-to-people relations.