IBN concludes PDA negotiations with Nepwaste

Kathmandu, June 19: The Investment Board of Nepal (IBN) secretariat has completed the negotiations with the Nepwaste for the first package of solid waste management project of the Kathmandu Valley and set to take the agenda to the Boards’ next meeting.

The meeting chaired by the Prime Minister takes the final decision about the large infrastructure projects handled by the IBN, one stop service provider agency for such projects.

Following the board’s decision, the IBN and Nepwaste will move ahead to finalise the Project Development Agreement (PDA) negotiations, after that the private sector company will start the project formally, said Maha Prasad Adhikari, Chief Executive Officer of the IBN.

“We have concluded negotiations for the Project Development Agreement (PDA) with the company more than three months ago. We have asked for feedback from the municipalities and metropolitan cities in the valley. All local bodies except Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) have sent their opinion about the project,” he said.

The solid waste management of the valley will be implemented in three packages – package I covers KMC and other municipalities except Kirtipur in Kathmandu district, Package II and III cover Lalitpur Metropolitan City, and Kirtipur, bhaktapur, madhyapur and other municipalities in Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts.

Nepwaste, a Finnis and Nepali joint venture of Compunication OY and Organic Village, was selected to implement Package I. They have 49 per cent and 51 per cent stake in the company respectively.

Similarly, Clean Valley, Indian and Nepal joint venture, was selected for Package II and III.

IBN has said that the negotiations were underway with the Clean Valley, and the talks were delayed as the two sided were struggling to forge agreement with the amount of fee to be charged to the households.

The Rs. 8.2 billion project is divided into Rs. 6.3 billion for the Package I and Rs. 1.9 billion for the Package II.

According to IBN, the project envisions replacing the present practice of solid waste management – street sweeping, collection and disposal by a resource oriented and sustainable practice of reduce, reuse and recycle.

About 1000 metric tons of waste is generated in the valley every day of which 76 per cent is household waste, 11 per cent street and drainage waste, 11 per cent commercial and 2 per cent medical waste.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 20 June 2018.