A state-owned Nepalese power company is to develop the Himalayan country’s biggest hydroelectric plant after the government scrapped a deal with a Chinese company, a government official said on Sunday.
DEAL SCRAPPED
Nepal’s Cabinet scrapped a US$2.5 billion deal with China Gezhouba Group Corp (中國葛洲壩集團) to build the Budhi Gandaki hydroelectric plant this month, citing lapses in the award process.
“The Cabinet has decided to entrust the Nepal Electricity Authority to develop the plant,” said Pushkar Dhungel, an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa, who is also the country’s energy minister.
PARTY DIVISION
The government has set up a panel to arrange funds for the project, the energy ministry said in a notice, adding that the plant was expected to be ready in eight years.
However, the opposition Communist UML party has said it would hand the project back to China if voted to power after elections that began on Sunday.
Election results are expected next month after the second phase of voting on Dec. 7.
China and India, Nepal’s giant neighbors, both vie for influence in the country and have been lobbying for infrastructure projects there.
Soon after the China Gezhouba deal was scrapped, India’s state-run power company NHPC Ltd expressed its interest in bidding for the project to build the 1,200 megawatt (MW) plant.
UNTAPPED POTENTIAL
Nepal’s rivers, cascading from the snow-capped Himalayas, have vast, untapped potential for hydropower generation, but a lack of funds and technology has made it lean on India to meet annual demand of 1,400MW.
Kathmandu has cleared a 750MW project to be built on the West Seti River in the western part of the country by China’s state-owned Three Gorges International Corp (三峽國際).
It has also permitted two Indian companies — GMR Group and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd — to each build one hydropower plant capable of generating 900MW of power, which is mainly to be exported to India.
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