India’s Power Trade Company (PTC) Limited is all set to purchase 1200 megawatts of electricity to be generated by the West Seti and Seti River-6 hydropower projects.

PTC, a state-owned company of India, has signed an agreement to purchase electricity from the two strategically important projects. Following the agreement, the projects have secured market for their energy.

The reservoir-based West Seti Hydropower Project has the capacity to produce 750 MW of electricity while the Seti River-6 has the potential to produce 450 MW of energy.

Both the projects are being developed by an Indian company NHPC.

NHPC’s Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) AK Singh and PTC India’s CMD Rajiv Kumar Mishra signed an agreement at the corporate office of NHPC in Faridabad during a recent ceremony for the purchase of electricity produced by the two projects.

The Government of Nepal has already granted permission to NHPC Limited to develop these two projects. The 52nd board meeting of the Investment Board of Nepal chaired by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had recently decided to allow the company to conduct the feasibility study of the two projects.

The Investment Board had signed an agreement to this effect with NHPC on August 18. As per the agreement, the Indian company will have to file an application seeking license for survey of West Seti Hydropower Project within 45 after signing the MoU and that of Seti River-6 within 6 months.

The company will have to prepare the Detailed Project Report within two years after acquiring the survey license.

Preliminary studies have shown that West Seti Hydropower Project can generate up to 3.3 billion units of electricity annually while Seti River-6 project can produce 1.4 billion units of electricity per year.

The Seti River-6 project is being constructed 50 kilometers downstream of the West Seti project.

The electricity produced from these two projects will be connected to the New Attariya Sub -Station in Kailali district.

PTC, which was established in 1999, is an Indian company run through public-private partnership. It is involved in cross-border electricity trade between Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

The estimated cost of West Seti project is said to be around Rs 168 billion while that of Seti River-6 is projected to cost Rs 101 billion.