Tanahu Hydropower Limited, a subsidiary of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), is at the final stage of prequalifying bidders for the construction of the Tanahu Hydropower Project.
A company official said the prequalification would be completed within a month. The 140 MW storage-type project is located on the Seti River in Tanahu district in western Nepal.
On April 17, six companies had applied for the prequalification bidding for conducting a detailed design and constructing the headworks under the first package—Sinohydro Corporation of China, Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) of India, CMC of Italy, HCC Dogus of India, China Gezhouba Group Company of China and a joint venture of Kalika Construction of Nepal and Songda of Vietnam.
Three of the bidders—Sinohydro, HCC and CMC Italy—had applied for the prequalification bidding for the detailed design and construction of the waterway and powerhouse, and the supply of related equipment under the second package. According to Sunil Kumar Dhungel, managing director of Tanahu Hydropower, the company is evaluating the documents of the applicants on a war footing under the leadership of Lahmeyer International, consultants to the project.
“We have been receiving plenty of technical queries about the proposals submitted by the bidders from the consultant,” said Dhungel. “Evaluating a project of this magnitude takes a lot of time. But we are very hopeful that we will finish the prequalification within a month.”
The Tanahu Hydropower Project will be one of Nepal’s biggest storage-type projects with an estimated average annual energy generation of 587.7 GWh in the first 10 years and 489.9 GWh after that. The project is designed for peaking up to six hours in the dry season. The hydropower scheme is being co-funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and European Investment Bank (EIB). Loan agreements for $150 million were signed with the ADB in February 2013.
Similarly, credit deals totalling $183 million were signed with JICA in March 2013. A loan agreement for $70 million was signed with the European Investment Bank (EIB) in May 2013, which was further increased to $85 million.
The government and the NEA will finance the preparation of the preconstruction infrastructure. The government will invest $71 million in the project which is estimated to cost $505 million.
The NEA has begun developing reservoir-type projects after forming a subsidiary. According to NEA officials, the preparation of the design and the construction of a bridge has begun at the project site. An environmental impact assessment was done in 2009.’
Source : The Kathmandu Pos
