25 MW Seti River Hydropower Project sets deadline of November end to start production

Kathmandu; The 25 MW Seti River Hydropower Project being built in Machhapuchhre Rural Municipality, has prepared to start its test production by the last week of November.

According to the project, about 95 percent of the project work has been completed, while in the next two months, all the remaining works of the project are anticipated to be completed. Seti Hydropower Project is constructed by Vision Lumbini Urja Company Pvt Ltd at an investment of Rs 5 billion.

All the headworks on the civil side of the project have been completed. Likewise, the pipeline connection work has also been completed. The work of connecting the equipment to the power house is going on. Commercial production will start 15 days after the start of trial production. Jagat Bahadur Pokharel, executive chairman of the project, said that work is being done to produce commercial electricity within the deadline (RCOD) of the project.

Pokharel added that all the civil works of the project have been completed and the works for hydro mechanical, electro mechanical and transmission line construction are in the final stage. According to the project, all the necessary equipment and materials for hydro-mechanical and electro-mechanical works have arrived at the construction site and are being connected.

Out of the 14 towers along the transmission line, except for three, the work has been completed. As the transmission line's 'right of way' has been cleared, the remaining tower will be constructed and wires will be installed, according to the project.

"We have accelerated the work to start trial production within the end week of November," Chairman Pokharel said.

According to Pokharel, construction of dams, tunnels, power houses, towers and 'right of way' are considered as major and complex works of the project. Project officials say that these works have reached the final stage. The work of the project started in July 2020. The project has been delayed by a year than the stipulated time due to impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The headwork of the project is located in Machhapuchhre-2. Electricity will be produced by damming the water of the Seti River at Bharabhari and dropping it to the power house through a 6,400 meter long underground pipe. Likewise, electricity will be generated from two turbines of 12.5 MW capacity each by dropping water from a height of 187 meters in the power house.

Engineer Lekhnath Pandey said that there is a plan to connect the produced electricity from the switchyard next to the power house to the 132 kV Modi-Lekhnath substation built by the Nepal Electricity Authority in Lahachowk.

New Modi-Lekhnath transmission line project has recently been constructed by Nepal Electricity Authority for the flow of electricity from Kaski and Parbat hydropower projects to the national transmission system. It is believed that this will also improve the electricity supply.