KATHMANDU: Nepal’s plans to export an additional 20 MW of electricity to Bangladesh have hit a bottleneck due to prolonged delays in holding the 13th Nepal-India energy secretary-level Joint Steering Committee (JSC) meeting.

While Nepal successfully initiated its milestone 40 MW power export to Bangladesh, further expansion remains on hold because the bilateral oversight body has not convened since February 2025.

Beyond stalling the Bangladesh transit route, the policy hiatus has halted progress on finalizing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the 220 kV Chameliya-Jauljibi cross-border transmission line.

Although Nepal actively exports roughly 1,200 MW of surplus monsoon electricity to India, the lack of top-level diplomatic talks continues to bottleneck the regulatory approvals and infrastructure integration needed for wider South Asian grid expansion.