Kathmandu, Sept 12: A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the development of the country’s largest hydropower project to be built with the foreign direct investment (FDI) on Tuesday.
Energy Minister Shakti Bahadur Basnet laid foundation stone of the project with the capacity of 216 megawatt which is being developed for domestic consumption with FDI from a Korean company.
The dam and physical structures of the project are located at Haku village of Amachhodingmo Rural Municipality-1 while underground powerhouse lies at Uttargaya Rural Municipality in Rasuwa district.
During the groundbreaking ceremony, Minister Basnet said the government is creating investment-friendly environment to lure international and domestic investors and to achieve economic prosperity in the country through hydropower projects.
The main investor of the project is South-East Power of Korea.
President and Chief Executive Officer of South-East Power Hau Chun Kim said development of the project would be instrumental to achieve economic prosperity by exporting surplus power to the neighboring countries and minimize climate change impacts.
Development of the project started in 2020 and the overall physical progress of the project is 22 per cent so far.
The dam construction of the project shall start after the monsoon is over.
The 647.34 million USD (including Interest during Construction) project is financed through 70% debt and 30% equity. The project partners will provide an equity investment of 194.20 Million USD. In comparison, the debt of 453.12 million USD is being provided by a group of international lenders, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Korean Exim Bank (K-EXIM), Korean Development Bank (KDB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), FMO (The Netherlands), the British International Investment (BII), Proparco (France), and the OPEC fund for International Development (OFID).
