The 22-megawatt capacity Bagmati Small Hydropower Project being constructed by private sector developers is set to be connected to the national grid within this month. The project is located at Ipapanchakanya village along the border of Lalitpur and Makawanpur districts, some 100 kilometres south from Kathmandu.

Mandu Hydropower Company, developer of the project, has informed that it has scheduled to connect the produced electricity from the river by March.

Maheshwor Shrestha, executive chairman of the project, informed that the installation works of the hydromechanical and electromechanical equipment are in the final stage. “We will finish installing the aforementioned equipment very soon and have planned test production by March 15.”

The civil works of the hydropower project have already been completed.

As per Shrestha, the company had scheduled to generate electricity from July last year but the works of Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track had disturbed their work. Construction of the project was started in 2016. He further said that the construction works of the 13-kilometre-long transmission line from the project to Kulekhani substation in Makawanpur have also been completed.

Meanwhile, Nepal Electricity Authority — the state-owned power utility — has already signed an agreement with Mandu Hydropower Company to purchase the generated energy. The power purchase rate has been fixed at Rs 4.40 during the rainy season and Rs 8.80 during the winter season.

Prime Bank led a consortium of 11 other banks to invest in the project, which is being built at a total cost of Rs four billion. Of the total investment, 70 per cent of the funds has been managed through loans and the remaining 30 per cent through equity share.