Kathmandu, Nov 20 (IANS) India and Nepal Friday kicked off water-sharing talks in the Himalayan republic that will finally give a push to the massive 6,000 MW Pancheswor Multipurpose Project more than 10 years after the two governments signed a treaty to develop the hydro-power project.
A 10-member delegation led by Indian Water Resources Secretary Umeshnath Panjiyar started the two-day talks with his Nepali counterpart, Energy Secretary Shankar Koirala, in the lake city of Pokhara.

Though the two sides will negotiate on nearly a dozen issues, the focus is on Panchewor, with the teams expected to draw up the terms and references for the Pancheswor Development Authority, the body that will oversee the ambitious project.

Pancheswor is the central piece of the Integrated Development of Mahakali Treaty that the two governments signed in 1996 to harness the Mahakali river, known as Sharda in India.

However, though the detailed project report was to have been completed in 2001, the project was put on the backburner due to the political turmoil in Nepal.

When Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal visited India in August, at a meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, both sides agreed that the project would be expedited.

Currently, Nepal is going through a period of acute power scarcity with the power authorities slapping daily power outages on the country, including the capital.

Also on the agenda is the controversial high dam that India has been urging Nepal to build to tame the Kosi river that runs through both Nepal and India and causes havoc in India during monsoon floods.

The two sides will also discuss the problem of inundation caused by the Kosi as well as irrigation.