There is good news for the people affected by the Budhigandaki Hydropower Project and the Nepali people in general. The project had become uncertain due to the long political complications and policy instability.
Finally, the Budhigandaki Hydropower Public Limited Company has been set up, raising hopes that the project would be moved ahead in an expeditious manner. The Office of the Company Registrar has made available the certificate of the formation of a public limited by the name ‘Budhigandaki Hydropower’ which has been set up for project construction, to the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation today itself.
It had been long since a decision to establish a company had been taken but the process for the same had not made any progress. This had raised concerns on all sides. Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal had stated in a programme few days back that it took time to set up the company as some technical tasks remained.
It is said an environment has been created for construction of the much-anticipated project in the ‘company model’ and that also with Nepalis own investment as per the aspiration of the general public and the project-affected people. The government had decided on June 28 to set up a company for the construction of this ‘ national pride’ project.
The project with a total installed capacity of 1,200 megawatts. A French company- Tactwell- had prepared the detailed project report of the Budhigandaki Hydropower Project in 2014. It had stated that the project cost would be Rs 270 billion.
This cost estimation was made nearly eight years back and the cost is expected to go up. The government has distributed compensation of Rs 40 billion so far to the project-affected population. The authorized capital of the company would be worth Rs 60 billion and the issued capital is worth Rs 20 billion.
