I would like to begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to the Koshi Investment Authority for hosting the Investor Summit in May 2025 in Biratnagar. The summit played an important role in bringing the economic and strategic potential of the Koshi region to the attention of a wider audience. For me, it was also a deeply personal moment—an opportunity to engage with policymakers, investors, and local stakeholders, and to commit myself to investing in Koshi Province, my birthplace.
Koshi is endowed with abundant water resources, fertile land, and resilient human capital. What it needs, however, is not short-term industrialization at any cost, but long-term, self-reliant, climate-aligned development—development that respects the extraordinary fragility of Nepal’s Himalayan ecosystem while strengthening national resilience.
Nepal today stands at a crossroads. There is broad consensus that the country must produce fertilizer domestically, yet it is equally clear that not all urea projects are created equal. The choice before us is stark: pursue a genuinely green and self-reliant model, or lock the country into long-term dependence on fossil fuels and foreign natural-gas pipelines.
Urea plants based on imported natural gas may appear economical on paper, but their hidden costs are significant. They bind Nepal to permanent dependency on cross-border gas infrastructure over which it has no strategic control. They expose farmers and public finances to geopolitical risk and global price volatility. Most critically, they import carbon emissions into one of the most environmentally fragile regions on Earth.
Such projects also foreclose the possibility of building a circular domestic ecosystem—one in which clean energy supports agriculture and industrial byproducts are reused rather than discarded. Fossil-fuel-based urea creates a carbon lock-in that contradicts Nepal’s climate commitments and limits access to green finance and high-quality carbon markets. For a Himalayan nation already facing glacial retreat, erratic monsoons, and accelerating biodiversity loss, this is not development. It is deferred environmental debt, passed on to future generations. Nepal has a rare opportunity to do better, to leapfrog directly into green industrialization, much as it once did by prioritizing hydropower over imported fuels.
It is against this backdrop that, in May 2025, I signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of Nepal Green Hydrogen Company with the Government of Nepal to prepare a Detailed Project Report (also known as a Detailed Feasibility Study Report) for a Green Hydrogen, Green Ammonia, and 200-kiloton Green Urea manufacturing facility in the Terai region of Koshi Province.
Recognizing its strategic importance, the Government of Nepal has formally designated this initiative as the Koshi Pride Project. This designation reflects not only the scale of the undertaking, but also its alignment with Nepal’s long-term goals for energy security, agricultural self-sufficiency, and climate responsibility. The guiding principle is simple yet transformative: Nepal should feed its soil using its own water, sun, and clean electricity—not imported fossil fuels.
Nepal currently imports more than one million tons of urea each year, draining foreign-currency reserves and exposing farmers to external supply shocks. The Koshi Pride Project offers a different path-import substitution without environmental compromise by producing fertilizer domestically using renewable power and green hydrogen.
The initiative has already attracted meaningful regional attention. The proposed 200-kiloton Green Urea project has been discussed at several prominent energy forums under the leadership of Dr. Biraj Singh Thapa, including a high-level forum inaugurated by the Energy Minister of India in New Delhi in July 2025. This recognition underscores Nepal’s potential not as a follower, but as an emerging regional leader in green hydrogen and sustainable fertilizer production.
A defining feature of the Koshi Pride Project is its carbon-circular design. Through Carbon Capture and Utilization, carbon dioxide emissions from the state-owned Udaipur Cement Factory will be captured and repurposed as inputs for green fertilizer production. This approach transforms an industrial emission source, originally a gift to the people of Nepal from the Government of Japan, into part of a climate-positive value chain that reduces emissions, protects the Himalayan ecosystem, and strengthens domestic industry.
Unlike gas-dependent industrial models, the project is anchored in Nepal’s indigenous energy strengths. It will leverage the country’s projected hydropower surplus beginning in 2026–2027, supported by large-scale solar and agri-voltaic installations that can act as a “daytime battery,” stabilizing the grid and managing seasonal fluctuations in hydropower generation. This integrated approach ensures energy security, price stability, and alignment with Nepal’s climate goals.
The Koshi Pride Project is more than a fertilizer plant. It is a statement of values. Nepal must choose between a fossil-fuel future tied to foreign gas pipelines and external dependencies, or a self-reliant, circular, green ecosystem powered by its own rivers, sun, and innovation. For the Himalayas, there is no middle ground.
By choosing green-hydrogen-based urea, Nepal can protect its environment, empower its farmers, secure its energy future, and demonstrate that true development is not imported through pipelines, but built at home.
