India-Nepal friction casts shadow on proposed Pancheshwar multipurpose dam project

The project first conceived 24 years ago in 1996, had picked up pace in 2014 after the Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to power.

New Delhi: The friction in India-Nepal ties over the latter including three disputed areas in its new political map has cast a shadow on the future of the proposed Pancheshwar multipurpose dam project that the two countries are jointly planning to build on the border.

The Pancheshwar project will come up across the Mahakali river, where it forms an international boundary between the two countries. It straddles Uttarakhand in India and the Far Western Development Region of Nepal. According to India, the river draws its waters from the Mahakali river (known as Sarada in India), which originates at Kalapani, one of the disputed sites in Uttarakhand that Nepal has now claimed as its own. [Readmore]