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Three Gorges Might Pull Out Of West Seti Hydropower Project
Three Gorges Might Pull Out Of West Seti Hydropower Project
KTM Metro Reporter
September 26, 2017
Kathmandu: Returning from the four-day visit to China on Sunday, September 24, 2017, Minister for Energy Mahendra Bahadur Shahi said that while talking to the officials of the Chinese Company: Three Gorges, they hinted at withdrawing from the West Seti Hydropower Project stating the favorable environment for investment was lacking in Nepal. The minister had gone to China to lobby for Chinese investment in other hydropower projects in Nepal, the news in ‘artha-bazaar’ of “gorkhapatra” of September 25, 2017 stated.
The Chinese officials complained that the approach to the West Seti Hydropower Project road had not been done, the transmission line was not built, and compensation for land required for the project had been quite high.
It has been five years since the Chinese company has stated to work on the project but nothing has been done so far. Australian company called SMEK had kept the license for constructing the West Seti Hydropower Project for 16 years without doing anything. At that time the energy produced from the project was supposed to sell to India but India was not so keen to buy the Nepalese hydropower.
The West Seti Hydropower Project has the capacity of producing 750 MW. Nepal through Nepal Electricity Authority was to invest 25% of the total cost and build the project in the joint partnership. The Chinese company had even proposed to make the West Seti Hydropower Project a multi-purpose project, the news stated.
