As per project officials, 35 per cent of the construction work of the Upper Trishuli III B hydropower project — in which Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and Nepal Telecom (NT) have a major stake — has been completed so far.

As per Mohan Prasad Gautam, director of the project, the project will be completed within March 13, 2021. The project located at Kispang Village Municipality of Nuwakot was started on February 10 this year.

Managing Director of NEA and Chairman of the project, Kul Man Ghising, said the contractor of the project has been working in a satisfactory manner. The project is being executed by a Chinese contractor company called Sichuan Hydraulic and Hydroelectric Engineering under the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model.

Ghising has directed the concerned project officials and contractor to complete the project as per the agreement.

As per the contract agreement, the contractor company has been assigned the responsibility to build the entire project, which includes not only the design of the project but also completion of all civil, electromechanical and hydromechanical works. The contractor is also responsible for connecting the power generated by the project to the national grid.

At present, the contractor company has finished drilling 724 metres of the 3.8-kilometre-long tunnel. As per the project, the drilling of the tunnel has been categorised into four sections and drilling works on all the sections are taking place simultaneously.

The Upper Trishuli III B is a cascade project of the Upper Trishuli III A project, which recently started commissioning power to the national grid.

As per Gautam, the project does not have to build a barrage and descender as they have already been built at the site of the Upper Trishuli III A project. “The contractor has already built the sluice gate of the tunnel.”

He further informed that the construction works of power house, surge tank, laying penstock pipe and other infrastructure-related works will start only after the monsoon season.

“We have directed the contractor company to start acquiring the necessary equipment for penstock pipe, another sluice gate, turbine, runner, generator and other electromechanical works,” Gautam said, adding that the contractor company has assured that they will do the needful as soon as possible and start commissioning energy to the national grid within the stipulated time.

Though the actual construction cost of the project stands at Rs 7.44 billion, the total cost incurred will amount to Rs 8.22 billion, including interests of Rs 780 million. Of the total investment, 30 per cent or Rs 2.46 billion has been managed through equity.

Both NEA and NT have 30 per cent share each in the project, while five per cent is owned by the rural municipalities and municipalities of Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. A further five per cent share has been allotted to local financial institutions of Rasuwa and Nuwakot and 10 per cent to the locals of the two aforementioned districts.

Meanwhile, 15 per cent share has been allocated to the general public and five per cent to NEA and NT employees.