KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal inaugurated the much-awaited 70-MW middle-Marsyangdi hydroelectricity project on Sunday.
One of the major under construction hydro projects in the country is connected to the national grid at a point when consumers have been bearing the brunt of 45-hours long load shedding a week imposed by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).
Yet, there is little to cheer up.
“We can’t shorten the current load shedding hours just because the project has come into operation,” Sher Singh Bhat, director of NEA’s system operations department told myrepublica.com. “All it can help us is that it prevents us from increasing the load shedding hours in near future.”
One of the two turbines (with 35 MW capacity) will generate electricity at the time of inauguration while another turbine with equal capacity will be tested in next two-week time.
“The project will produce about 35 MW of electricity even after both the turbines come in operation because by that time the water level in the river will be low,” Bhat said.
The original completion deadline of the run-of-the river project was December 2004. The construction had started in 2001.
DHN receives license to develop 70MW Dudhkoshi-2
