Deadline for construction of 111 MW Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project extended by another three months

Kathmandu: The completion date for the construction of the 111 MW Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project has been deferred by another three months.

The project under construction in the public-private partnership model has been pushed back to October 2023 as the work has not been completed within the stipulated time, according to the project. Earlier, the project was scheduled to be completed by the end of the current fiscal year.

So far, the project is reported to have completed only 94 percent of the project. There is still six percent of the work left for completion.

With the deferral of the completion date multiple times as of now, the cost of the Rasuwagadhi project has largely increased, according to the financial statement unveiled by the company.   

The revised total cost has been estimated at Rs 17.01 billion. In the beginning, the construction of the project was started earmarking Rs 13.68 billion excluding interest liability for the construction period.

This shows that the cost of the project has increased by Rs 3.33 billion as of now. The cost of the project construction is expected to increase further due to the extension of the timeline and also with the rising price of the dollar.

The developer of Rasuwagadhi Hydropower had targeted to start production of electricity as of the first week of February 2020, which later on was revised to June 2022. According to the developer, the project construction was adversely affected by a number of factors including the devastating earthquake, the Indian blockade, the COVID-19 pandemic, floods in Bhotekoshi River and a number of technical problems.

Rasuwagadhi Hydropower will produce 613,875,000 million units of electricity annually. The project is estimated to earn Rs 3.25 billion annually from the sales of electricity. The company's paid-up capital is Rs 6.84 billion.

The construction of the Rasuwagadhi project was started in 2014. Even after a decade, the project has not been completed.

The project has already constructed 4,185 meters long tunnel. A total of three turbines of 38 MW capacity will be installed in the run-of-the-river (RoR) project. The project is located in Gosainkunda Rural Municipality near the Nepal-China border.