KATHMANDU, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The major six political parties of Nepal on Friday reached an agreement to declare the indispensable service sectors such as hospital, industries, transportation and custom offices as "shutdown prohibited zones".

    The meeting held at the Nepali Prime Minister's office in Nepali capital Kathmandu on Friday morning. Six major political parties took the decision to avoid strikes at the places that provide highly essential services so as not to breach the rights of trade unions.

    However, the largest opposition party in Constituent Assembly, Nepali Congress (NC) expressed note of dissent following the decision.

    Nepali Minister for Information and Communications and government spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara said that the parties drew the government's attention to the construction of short term, mid-term and long-term plans to end the crisis of load shedding. He added that the government is serious towards it.

    Energy crisis in the country had severely affected hospitals, industries, transportation, educational institutions and custom offices. Nepali government has imposed 16 hours power-cut since Jan. 10 declaring "energy crisis" in the country.

    The major political parties have also reached an agreement to reconstruct the damaged "Saptakoshi grid" in Sunsari district, some 220 km southeast of Nepali capital Kathmandu to reduce the 16hours power-cut in a day. Saptakoshi transmission line tower connecting 90 MW of electricity was destroyed by monsoon flood on Aug. 2008.

    Likewise, the political parties also drew the government's attention to reduce the electricity supply in the Prime Minister's official residence, ministerial quarters and the government offices as there has been a widespread public concern over unnecessary use of power in those sectors.