Betan Karnali Sanchayakarta Hydropower Company Ltd (BKSHCL) has started to conduct the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the 688-megawatt Betan Karnali hydropower project. The project is being promoted and funded by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).

“We have awarded the contract to conduct the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Betan Karnali project to NEA Engineering Company and it will be completed by 2019,” informed Deepak Rauniar, chief officer at EPF.

In May 2017, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation had granted approval to EPF to construct the project through its own resources.

“It will take two years to complete all the survey works and we plan to complete the construction of the project five years after the survey works are over,” informed Rauniar.

As per him, this is the first hydropower project that EPF will be constructing through its own initiative.

Rauniar also informed that EPF will invest Rs 1.29 billion from its income of fiscal year 2015-16 in the first phase of the Betan Karnali hydropower project. EPF expects the cost of construction of the project to hover around Rs 80 billion.

The EPF has proposed to generate 40 per cent of investment from contributors, and around 600,000 contributors of the EPF will get shares of the hydropower project.

As per Rauniar, Japan International Cooperation Agency had conducted a survey of the project in 1982, and had mentioned that the 688-megawatt hydel project is a low-cost, high-capacity project.