Penstock pipes measuring total length of 27.5 metres were successfully installed in the most difficult vertical part of the 456-megawatt Upper Tamakoshi hydropower project today.

Kul Man Ghising, managing director of Nepal Electricity Authority, informed that Andritz Hydro had installed the pipes weighing nine tonnes in the 310-metre-long vertical tunnel.

Earlier, construction had come to a standstill when the hydro-mechanical contractor, Texamo Railway Engineering of India, had failed to execute the installation.

This had pushed back the project’s completion deadline for the fourth time to December 31 this year.

After that, NEA had asked the Indian contractor to reassign the crucial task of installing the penstock pipes to Austrian firm Andritz Hydro.

“One of the most difficult tasks of installing the penstock pipes in the vertical tunnel has been completed,”

Ghishing said, adding that the power utility has directed the concerned project officials, consultant and contractor companies to complete construction works within stipulated timeframe.

In accordance with the latest schedule, the project is slated to produce 76 megawatts of power from its first unit of its six units by December 31. Ghising claimed that construction of the project will be completed within the revised deadline.

However, it took nearly 128 hours to instal one penstock pipe, and installation of rest of the pipes will have to be sped up to complete the project on time. Altogether 74 penstock pipes need to be fitted, of which only four have been installed so far. The total length of the pipes will measure 682 metres.