They have collected donations from every household in the VDC for the planned Rakunkhola micro hydro project, whose construction work was formally inaugurated on Friday.
Netra Raj Rai, chairman of the project's consumer committee, informed that each household has contributed money for the project, to be built at an estimated cost of about Rs 20 million. According to Rai, Rs 4.5 million has already been collected from 450 households of the VDC. Each household has invested Rs 10,000.
A meeting of the VDC council has also decided to provide Rs 500,000 to the project from the VDC's budget for the ongoing fiscal year.
Secretary of the committee, Sambhu Rai informed that a memorandum has been signed with the government's Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC) for financial support. He informed that APEC has committed to provide Rs 8.775 million for the project.
He claimed that the project will be completed within one year as the people of the VDC are committed to carry out the work in war footage.
Locals have also come up with a project schedule that requires every household to compulsorily send a member to work for the project.
Karnasher Rai, a local, the village residents decided to construct the micro hydro project themselves as connecting the VDC, located in remote part of the disctrict, to the national transmission lines seemed impossible.
The VDC is situated 65 kilometer away from Gaighat, the district headquarters. Locals complained that their repeated requests with concerned government agencies to connect the VDC with the national grid and transmission lines have fallen into deaf ears.
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