Nepal approves West Seti project for hydropower exports to India

19 Jul 2007

Kathmandu: The Nepali parliamentary natural resource committee has cleared the construction of a 750 MW West Seti hydropower project in its Doti district to generate power for export to India on a commercial basis.

The panel has approved the Nepal government''s decision to award the project to Australia''s Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation (SMEC).

The committee has also asked the government to ensure 10-per cent free electricity from the project from SMEC or its equivalent amount of money.

SMEC has said it could build a separate 75 MW project if Nepal wants free power since it finds technical difficulty in providing 10-per cent power from the West Seti project itself due to lack of transmission facilities in the vicinity of the project.