About 80 per cent work of the Nilgiri hydropower project, under construction in Annapurna Rural municipality-4, Narchyang of Myagdi district, has been completed.

Four years ago, Nilgiri Khola Hydropower Company started the construction of the 190 MW project, consisting of Nilgiri-I (38 MW) and Nilgiri II (71 MW).

This is a big project in the district being constructed with private sector investment.

The project took two years to build the access road in Akkare hill. The structures of the project have been built in the gorge of mountains.

According to the project, the dam site, tunnel digging and power house construction of both projects have been completed.

Ratna Bamjan Tamang, resident engineer of the project, informed that after the digging of 2000-metre-long tunnel of the Nilgiri-I and 4,200 metre-long of the Nilgiri-II, the slope concreting work has been started.

He informed that the work of penstock tunnel digging has been completed and the penstock pipe connection work of 800 metres of the Nilgiri-I and 1,500 metres of the Nilgiri-II has been started.

He informed that the civil structure work of the power plant to be built for both the projects has been completed and the electromechanical work has started.

He said that despite the geographical difficulties, the construction of the project has gained momentum.

He said that work is being forwarded with the goal of completing both projects simultaneously within the next six months.

Currently, about 500 people have been mobilised in the project as technical manpower and labourers.

A structure has been built in such a way that the water coming out of the Nilgiri-I power plant can be stored as a dam and put into the tunnel of the Nilgiri cascade.

A dam has been constructed at Humkhola and a power house at Chotepa on the Nilgiri-I.

A 14-km access road has been constructed from cascade's power station to Humkhola.

These two projects are located in remote areas of Narchyang. A road has been constructed to reach the construction site through a difficult steep slope.

It was very challenging to complete the project due to the geographical difficulty.

Tamang said, "Constructing the project at the foot of the mountains was a big challenge for us, but we have been able to deal with all the challenges and problems, bringing the project construction to the final stage."

Both projects, estimated to cost around Rs. 16 billion, are of 'run-of-the-river' nature.

The electricity generated from Nilgiri Khola will be connected to the central grid from the Dana Substation with a capacity of 220 KVA.

According to the project, 23 out of 24 towers have been built and the wire extension work has been completed for the construction of an 8.5-km transmission line of 220 kV capacity connecting Chotepa-Dobilla to Dana Substation.