Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Deepak Khadka and India's Water Power Minister CR Patil have discussed about moving Pancheshwar forward. Minister Khadka, who reached India's New Delhi to participate in the 'India Energy Week-2025', said in a meeting with his counterpart Patil on Thursday that it was agreed to finalize the detailed project report (DPR) of the Pancheswar multi-purpose project and proceed with the project.

Probal Adhikari, a senior energy expert of the Ministry of Energy, said that the construction of the link canal from Tanakpur to the Nepal-India border has been completed. Officials who participated in the meeting said that after finalizing the water management procedure, it was agreed to release water according to the Mahakali Treaty. He also said that there was an agreement to send formal correspondence from the ministry regarding the 14th meeting of the Joint Committee on Flood and Inundation Management to be held from March 22 to 24. In the

meeting, India's Water Power Minister Patil said that India is positive to finalize the DPR of the Pancheshwar project and move the project forward quickly. Earlier, during the then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's visit to India in May 2080, it was agreed to complete the Pancheshwar DPR within three months. But so far Nepal and India have not reached an agreement on DPR.

In the fifth meeting of the Group of Experts (TOE), the DPR of Pancheswar was discussed but no agreement was reached, according to an energy expert. He said that there has been no discussion since then. "It has been agreed to finalize the DPR in the sixth meeting of the upcoming expert group," he said. After that, the meeting of the expert group held in New Delhi, India on July 5-6, 2080 agreed to direct the submission of the revised report within 15 days and to finalize the DPR within 21 days . But even though the expert group instructed to submit it within 15 days, the Indian company Wapcos Limited took about two months to submit the revised report. Soon after, the meeting held in Kathmandu on October 19 and 20, 2080 could not agree on the DPR. Since then, there has been no discussion so far, said the energy expert officer of the ministry.

According to the ministry, there are only two-three problems in the DPR of Pancheswar. An official related to the ministry said that there was no agreement about the rights of water, the benefits and shares associated with it. "How much water will benefit India and how much Nepal will benefit, they have not been able to agree on," said the official, "whatever India has studied, it is not fair." We have taken out a figure and presented it to India as the benefits of energy, water, flood control and irrigation from Pancheshwar.' The Mahakali Treaty of 2052 has not yet progressed. The then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and the then Prime Minister of India PV Narasimha Rao signed an agreement on 29 January 2052 regarding the Sarada Barrage, Tanakpur Barrage and Pancheshwar on the Mahakali River. After the Mahakali Treaty, the process of jointly building the Pancheswar Multipurpose Project with bilateral investment began. The then Parliament approved the Mahakali Treaty in October 2053 and approved the agreement to build a project in Pancheswar. It was agreed that both would invest in the

project on the basis of water usage, according to which about 65 percent Indian and 35 percent Nepalese investment would be. At that time, it was estimated that the project would cost 3 billion US dollars. As long time has passed since the contract was signed, the actual cost has not been worked out. There is no consensus between the two countries on the question of how much to invest in the Pancheshwar project. Since India will benefit more from irrigation, it is Nepal's position that it should invest more. India's stand is that both countries should bear the agreed share in the total cost of the project without considering the benefits. It has been agreed on the visit of Energy Minister Khadka to speed up Pancheshwar, which has not been completed for 29 years.

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal for the first time in 2071, he said in the Parliament that Pancheshwar would be completed within 5 years. I promise, within one year, the work of this project with a production capacity of 5,600 megawatts will be started. You cannot even imagine how much service Nepal will get from this. As much electricity as Nepal has now, it will be produced 6 times more than that," he said. In point number 19 of the joint statement released after the meeting with Modi during Prime Minister Dahal's visit to India in August 2073, it is mentioned that Pancheshwar will be completed as soon as possible.

In the statement issued by Dahal after returning to Nepal, it is stated that "Both parties have agreed to study and finalize the DPR of Pancheshwar multi-purpose project". When Indian Prime Minister Modi visited Nepal in July 2071, he promised in the Parliament that the DPR of Pancheshwar would be completed within 1 year and the project within 5 years. The then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba raised the issue of Pancheshwar again during his visit to India in August 2074. During Deuba's visit, it was agreed that the DPR would be completed within a month.

In March 2074, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli visited India with Pancheshwar as his main agenda. During the SAARC conference, when Indian Prime Minister Modi visited Nepal for the second time, the issue of Pancheshwar was informally raised again. Pancheshwar was also on the agenda when Modi came to Nepal in Baisakh 2075 to lay the foundation stone of the Arun-3 hydropower project, which is being built with the investment of the Indian company Sutlej Jalvidyut Nigam (ACJVN).