KATHMANDU, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The Bhutanese newspaper has recently published a report reviewing its coverage on troubles in Bhutan-India joint hydropower projects since 2012.
In its story published in April 2013, the Bhutanese focused on The Punatsangchu I project, which was beset with higher project costs after relocating the dam site permitted by Indian consultants, and later was stalled over a bank weakness, the newspaper said in the report released in late February.
It then wrote another story in July 2015 about a total of 1.4 billion Ngultrums (around 18.4 million U.S. dollars) "in irregularities and overpayment" for the project, according to the report.
As India's Guidelines on Cross Border Trade of Electricity restrict Bhutan's entry into Indian energy trading markets and limit the types of investment in Bhutan's hydropower sector, the Bhutanese newspaper has written eight stories in this regard since Feb. 11, 2017, and the outcry sparked in Bhutan thereafter resulted in India making major amendments to the guidelines, the report read.
On Feb. 6, 2021, "it was found that the dam site of the much delayed P-1 project would have to be abandoned" after a cost of 23 billion Ngultrums (around 301 million U.S. dollars) "with the proposal of building a barrage site," said the report.
Over the years, the newspaper also "reported extensively in the various difficulties caused in formalizing Joint Venture power projects due to unreasonable demands" by the Indian side. ■