KATHMANDU: The reservoir of the 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project – a national pride project— which is in the final stages of production, has been filled and water from the reservoir has been released in the tunnel.
The project, which is preparing for production in mid-May, has filled the dam with water for the main tunnel and penstock test.
Minister for Communication and Information Technology Parbat Gurung and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Basanta Nembang and NEA managing director Hridendra Dev Shakya, among others had visited the project site today.
Ganesh Neupane, spokesperson of the project, informed that water will be sent to the tunnel from Thursday as the reservoir of the project is full. “The work of the project has almost started for testing,” said Neupane. “The main tunnel will be tested by sending water soon.”
After sending water to the tunnel, the main tunnel and penstock will be tested. “Testing is in full swing to start production in the next 8 to 10 days,” informed Neupane, adding, after testing the tunnel and penstock, we will said the exactly date of the production. ”
The project has started preparations to generate 76 MW of electricity from the first unit by mid-May. He said that the work of penstock connection in the vertical tunnel and lower vertical tunnel is in the final stage.
Successful technical testing of hydro-mechanical equipment such as dams, intakes and other civil structures including gates and stop-lugs has been successfully completed in the reservoirs and descender ponds.
The project will generate 2.28 billion units of electricity annually. The project will earn Rs 9 billion annually from the sale of electricity. The project was estimated the initial cost of Rs 35 billion but due to various factors, including earthquake, border blockade, among other have tend to increase the project cost to nearly Rs 80 billion.