Two commercial banks Nepal have come forward to finance 688 MW Betan Karnali hydropower project, which is one of the largest hydropower projects being built in the country.
Nabil Bank and Nepal SBI Bank on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Betan Karnali Depositors Hydropower Limited. As per the MoU, the two banks will play a lead role in arranging debt financing worth up to Rs25 billion for the development of a 688MW hydropower plant. Anil Keshary Shah, deputy-CEO of Nabil, Anukool Bhatnagar, managing director of Nepal SBI and Dipak Rauniyar, acting administrator of EPF singed the MoU on the behalf of their respective organisations.
The company is the subsidiary of Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and it was awarded the project survey license by the Energy Ministry a year ago. Currently, the project is about to complete its detailed project report of the hydropower and plans to begin construction immediately once the design is ready.
“This is a first of a kind of investment commitment made by the commercial banks in Nepal,” said Shah, during the signing ceremony. “It will be a great learning experience and pave the way to attract more banks in financing large hydropower projects in future.”
Source : The Kathmandu Post
