New Delhi: The looming powercrisis during peak summer in mind, the power ministry has asked the externalaffairs ministry to open talks with Nepal to exploit some of itsuntapped hydroelectricity potential. 

In a letter to Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon lastmonth, outgoing Power Secretary R.V. Shahi underlined the importance ofutilising Nepal's 44,000 MW hydroelectric potential, of which only 650 MW hasso far been developed by Kathmandu. 

Citing the successful umbrella agreement with Bhutan in July2006, the power secretary suggested that the foreign ministry considerfinancing such projects.

Shahi wrote, "Implementation of these projects willhave a demonstrable effect as this would not only enable Nepal to meet its increasing energyrequirements, but would also boost its socio-economic development throughsustained income from sale of surplus power."

The power ministry has since floated an approach paper oncooperation with Nepalin development of hydroelectric projects. The paper has been sent to the PrimeMinister's Office, Cabinet Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi and Water Secretary GauriChatterjee.

The power ministry argues that cooperation with Nepal wouldalso be a confidence-building measure that could kickstart discussions onmulti-purpose projects.

Cooperation with Bhutan in hydropower has yieldedgood results, the letter said. Three projects Chukha (336 MW), Kurichu (60MW) and Tala (1020 MW) have been implemented as mutual benefit projects.Projects taken up so far with

Bhutanare run of the river projects fully financed by India through grant and loanfunding.

In addition to these three projects, discussions with Bhutanare at a final stage for taking up the implementation of Punatsanchhu 1hydroelectric power project of 1095 MW capacity with Indian assistance.

The power ministry argues that a similar umbrella agreementwith Nepalshould start with run of the river projects because they have shorter gestationperiod.

The ministry has already outlined a number of projects likeWest Seti (750 MW), Budhi Gandaki (600 MW), Arun 111 (400 MW), UpperMarshyanngdi (121 MW) and Upper Karnali (300MW) as possible for India-Nepal cooperation.