KATHMANDU, April 27:
Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has extended the construction time of Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Project by 26 months.
The project was scheduled to complete by the end of this month.
The board meeting of NEA held on Sunday took the decision as per the request of China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) – the developer of the project. The meeting, however, could not decide on the developer’s claim for additional Rs 9 billion from NEA.
The project was awarded in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model under which the developer cannot make claims for cost and time variation.
Talking to Republica, Minister Gyawali said the decision was taken to allow the developers to continue the work. “We will decide on claim for additional cost in the next meeting,” she added.
The Chinese developer came into controversy in June last year when it attempted to upgrade capacity to 90 MW from 60 MW without doing any works for months.
CGCC had pushed forward the time table of additional 28 months but the consultant North West Consulting Engineering had suggested to extend the time by only 26 months.
Uttam Amatya, chief of the project, said efforts were on to form dispute settlement mechanism which will also decide the additional cost of the project.
Source : Republica
