It has been almost three decades since the study of the 20 MW Budhiganga hydropower project, which was to be built in Sanfebagar Municipality-10 of Achham, began.

But so far the project construction process has not progressed. Although the government started the contract process three times, it was canceled all three times . Although the contract has been called for the fourth time, it has not been completed yet. According to the

project, there are different reasons for the cancellation of the contract three times. First time due to lack of competition, second time due to excessive cost proposal and third time the Saudi Fund (main lender) rejected the contract . Now the contract process for the fourth time has been started, but due to the lack of consent of the lender, the agreement has not been reached .

"Prior consent is required from the donor when entering into a contract, for which no agreement has been reached even after all the documents have been sent" - Surendra Ghimire, Head, Budhiganga Hydropower Project The study for this project, which is said to be built by the government itself, started in 2052. According to the feasibility study and environmental impact assessment study, the cost of the project is about 10 billion rupees. A loan agreement of 6 billion rupees was signed with the Saudi Fund for Development on June 18, 2014 for the construction of the project after studying the engineering design and environmental impact assessment.

The duration of the contract was up to 2023 . However, the term of the loan agreement has been extended until 2027 as the construction did not proceed during that period . Similarly, a loan agreement of 1.8 billion has been signed with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development on July 4, 2012 for the project. The remaining cost will be borne by the Government of Nepal. An agreement was signed with the Australian company Smack International and Udaya Consultancy on 14 June 2072 to prepare a detailed project report (DPR). After 5 years, the DPR was prepared only in 2077. According to the project, about 199.1 million rupees have been spent to prepare the DPR. The first contract process of the

project started in August 2078. Since there was only one contract at that time, it was canceled as there was no competition. Due to low competition in international level contracts, the process was canceled due to the question of transparency and price competition. There is a provision that at least 3 bidders should participate in such a competition. According to the

project, the contract was called for the second time in Chait 2078. At that time, the contract was canceled after all the construction companies demanded more than the cost. For the third time in October 2079, although the construction company awarded the contract at an appropriate price, the lender Saudi Fund rejected it saying that it was not according to their standards. The contract was stopped after the Saudi fund rejected the proposed contractor's financial and technical aspects as insufficient.

For the fourth time, the work of extracting and evaluating information for project contracts has been done . But Surendra Ghimire, head of the Budhiganga hydropower project, said that the agreement has not been reached. According to him, prior consent should be taken from the donor while signing the contract. He said that even though all the documents have been sent, no agreement has been reached yet.

According to him, the main contract process of the project has not been completed yet. Contracts for civil and hydromechanical works have been invited but the contract has not been concluded . In the current financial year, there is a budget of 2.196 billion for civil and hydromechanical works. There is a budget of 31 crores for electromechanical works. But the agreement has not been reached,' said Ghimire, the head of the project, 'the construction process has been affected because the government has not been able to secure the necessary budget.' He said that since the cost of the project will be more than the agreement, the lenders will not be asked and the Nepal government will manage it by itself.