The maintenance schedule has been fixed to produce electricity from the largest 456 MW upper Tamakoshi among the hydroelectric projects in operation by December 10.

Last October 11th and 12th, due to incessant rains, the landslides caused great damage to the structure (headworks) of the upper Tamakoshi hydropower station located in Bigu rural municipality-1 Lamabagar of Dolakha. 

The control room (control room) building on the right side of the dam site, the sand thickening pond (desander) and the underground canal (culvert) that carries water from the dam to the desander were heavily damaged. 

Out of the two desanders, the maintenance of the desander on the left is scheduled to be completed within the next 10 days and the electricity generation will start. For this, the old slope of the Desander wall, which is partially damaged, will be demolished and repaired. Likewise, the grouting of the cracks seen in the curved wall and ceiling will be progressed in parallel. 

Another descender on the right is designed to be repaired and the control room, which is currently on the surface, is designed to go underground. This work is expected to be completed before the start of the next rainy season. The maintenance of one tower of the transmission line that supplies electricity to the project which was damaged by rain has been completed.

A team including Kulman Ghising, executive director of Nepal Electricity Authority, who is also the chairman of the board of directors of Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower, a member of the company's board of directors, and the chief executive officer (CEO) monitored the project on site on Wednesday and got information about the ongoing maintenance.  The

team discussed with the project management, consultants and builders, and a schedule has been set to start power generation within December 10 and to complete the maintenance within 15 days of peak demand. The project can be run at full capacity for 4 hours of peak time by collecting water during low electricity demand.

If the power plant cannot be operated in winter, the management of electricity demand and supply is challenging internally, so the board of directors team went to the site to determine the measures to be taken to bring the power plant into operation as soon as possible. 

Executive Director Ghising urged everyone to be serious and sensitive in the maintenance as there will be a difficult situation if electricity cannot be produced from Upper Tamakoshi at the specified time.

'As we have been allowed to import electricity from India only in the afternoon and at night until next March, it is difficult for domestic production to meet the demand for electricity in the evening and morning (peak time) of winter. We have not been allowed to import even at night in March and April. If it does not come, there will be a difficult situation,' said Ghising.

He emphasized that the maintenance work of the right side descender should be carried out before the start of the next rainy season. "If that cannot be done, there may be a situation where we have to waste electricity during the rainy season when we are not able to produce, let us all be serious and start maintenance in such a sensitive situation," Ghising said. 

Due to incessant rains, the power generation was stopped from October 11 at 7 p.m. due to high water flow in the Tamakoshi River. All the gates of the dam were opened, due to which possible damage to the project structure was prevented.