NHPC keen biding on $2.5 billion Nepal hydropower project after Chinese deal scrapped

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    NHPC chief Balraj Joshi says the firm is interested in bidding for a $2.5 billion power project in Nepal after Kathmandu cancelled a deal with Chinas Gezhouba Group

    New Delhi: NHPC Ltd, Indian state power company, is interested in bidding for a $2.5 billion power project in Nepal, its chairman told Reuters, after Kathmandu cancelled a deal with China Gezhouba Group Corp .

    “We have to send our team there and work out all the details, but would be interested in bidding for the project,” Balraj Joshi said on Friday.

    In June a Maoist-dominated coalition government awarded a contract to China Gezhouba Group Corp. to build a 1,200MW plant on the Budhi Gandaki river, about 50km west of Kathmandu, to address acute power shortages.

    Critics in Nepal say the project was handed to the Chinese company without any competitive bidding, which is required by law, and a parliamentary panel asked the Nepali government to scrap the deal.

    Reuters