Kathmandu :-
Nepal has approved a proposal by China’s biggest hydropower developer to build a long-delayed hydropower project worth USD 1.6 billion in western Nepal.
The Investment Board Nepal (IBN) cleared the proposal by China’s CWE Investment Corporation for developing the 750 MW West Seti Hydropower Project yesterday.
A meeting of the IBN’s Board also decided to direct CWE Investment Corp and Nepal Electricity Authority to form a joint venture to develop the project.
The final approval for the project came almost three years after the memorandum of understanding was signed by IBN, a government entity that approves foreign direct investment.
“The project is in a good shape for acceleration. Financial and technical studies have been over,” said IBN CEO Radhesh Pant.
The CWE, a subsidiary of China’s Three Gorges Company, had inked the MoU in August 2012. The Three Gorges is China’s biggest hydropower developer and operates the world’s largest hydropower plant on the Yangtze river.
According to the MoU, the Chinese firm will inject 75 per cent of the total investment while the remaining 25 per cent would be generated within the country.
Nepal is forced to open up its vast hydropower potential in a bid to give a boost to its economy still emerging from the shadows of a decade-long civil war.
The storage-based project, being built in Baitadi, Bajura, Dadeldhura and Doti districts, will help Nepal ease its chronic power crisis.
India has shown keen interests in unlocking the hydropower potential of the strategically-located Himalayan nation.
Nepal last year cleared two major Indian hydropower projects totalling USD 2.4 billion, and the two countries have also agreed to sell electricity to each other.
But China has scaled up its ties with Nepal, much to the chagrin of India, to stem the flow of Tibetans travelling through Nepal to meet the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala.
Beijing recently increased its annual aid to Nepal to USD 128 million from the previous USD 24 million.
China also plans to build a 540-kilometre strategic high-speed rail link between Tibet and Nepal passing through a tunnel under Mt Everest.
Nepal, which produces about 800 MW of power—far less that the demand of 1,400 MW, is estimated to have a potential to generate 42,000 MW of hydropower.
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