India Halts 600 MW Power Supply: Sunsari-Morang Industrial Area Faces Load-Shedding

The suspension of 600 megawatts of electricity supply from India has plunged Nepal's industrial sector into a renewed crisis of load-shedding. Industries in the Sunsari-Morang industrial area have been enduring up to 13 hours of power cuts since Monday evening, with outages occurring from 5 PM to 6 AM daily.

Coinciding with this disruption, India's Minister for Power, Urban Housing, and Parliamentary Affairs, Manohar Lal Khattar, is currently on a visit to Nepal. He arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday at the invitation of Nepal's Energy Minister, Deepak Khadka, to inaugurate a transmission line constructed with Indian assistance and to inspect the Arun-3 hydropower project.

The timing of India's power supply cut, while Khattar is in Nepal, is considered significant. This disruption is likely to negatively impact production and the economy in Nepal's industrial sector.

Representatives from the industrial area have urged the government to immediately restore the power supply and address the load-shedding issue to mitigate further losses.