The National Hydropower Management has been losing an average of Rs 400,000 in revenue daily due to the lack of active maintenance by the 7.5 MW project.
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The Indrawati III Hydropower Project in Sindhupalchowk has been stalled for a month. The 7.5-megawatt project has been losing an average of Rs 400,000 in revenue daily due to the lack of active maintenance by the National Hydropower Management. The project, which started generating electricity 23 years ago with Nepali (private sector) investment, was built by Neslan Hydropar. The project, which has a dam in Panchpokhari Rural Municipality and a power house in Melamchi Municipality, had been generating an average of 3.5 megawatts of electricity during the dry season. An employee of the project said that they had to lose lakhs of rupees daily due to the shutdown of production when electricity was being sold at a high price. The employee said that they have lost about Rs 12 million in revenue during this period. The project started commercial production on 21 Asoj 2059. The project employees are unaware of the question of why the maintenance was not started. National Hydropower Chairman Kumar Pandey did not respond to repeated calls and messages. Company director Bisheshwar Subedi informed that the technology for the repair is being estimated, insurance has been claimed and if the amount is insufficient, the repair will be carried out even with his own income. He said that it took time to prepare a quotation for the repair and go through the process. Subedi said, ‘Since the project is very old, it is time to repair it.’
The penstock pipe of the project burst on 10 Chaitra. Bank employees and consultants had inspected the project site 15 days ago to invest in the repair. However, the repair has been stopped because the bank is not in a position to provide loans easily, sources say. The bank is hesitant to disburse loans by raising questions about the work being carried out by the management. When the flood in Ashar 2081 damaged the project, crores of rupees were spent on its construction at that time. Operator Subedi informed that some parts of the tunnel, about 3,300 meters, need to be repaired.
After the political change in 2046, the management of the project, which was built with Nepali (private sector) investment only, was not efficient and transparent from the beginning, and shareholders have been complaining that they have not received proper benefits. The project was led by NB Group. After NB also failed to operate the project transparently, the National Company gradually went into the hands of others.
Despite starting production for a long time, employees complain that they have been incurring losses due to weak management. National Hydropower Company Limited is constructing the Lower Indrawati in Sindhupalchowk itself and has also invested a large portion in the 14.15 MW Irkhuwakhola project in Bhojpur. Irkhuwakhola has started production. However, Indrawati employees have complained that they have not even received their salaries on time.
