IBN provides survey license of 750 MW West Seti Reservoir to NHPC, India

Kathmandu; The Investment Board Nepal (IBN) has provided the license to NHPC Limited, India, to survey 750 MW West Seti Reservoir Hydropower Project.

IBN Chief Executive Officer Sushil Bhatta on Thursday handed over the survey license to Ashok Kumar Joshi, deputy director general of NHPC. The Indian company on September 27 applied at the IBN for the license.

The company has been awarded the permit on condition that it will have to submit a preliminary report of the survey within three months to the board, while the detailed project report (DPR) needs to be submitted in the next 21 months.

The government has principally agreed to award construction contracts for the West Seti and SR-6 hydropower projects to NHPC. In this regard, both the sides have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on August 18. As per the MoU provision, the Indian company has to take the study license within 45 days from signing the agreement.

For SR-6, the deadline of six months has been fixed. According to the IBN, the Indian company has also started the process of receiving the license for SR-6 project. NHPC had already signed a power purchase agreement with Power Trade Corporation India Limited (PTC), an entity of the Indian government, to sell its production.

The government has remodeled the West Seti project as West Seti and Seti River (SR-6), a joint storage project, with the capacity to generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity.  The feasibility studies carried out earlier showed that West Seti could produce 3.30 billion units of electricity while Seti River could produce 1.40 billion units of electricity annually.

The SR-6 project will be constructed 50 km down the Seti River from the power house of West Seti. The produced electricity will be supplied to the substation at New Attariya.

Both the projects will cost an estimated Rs 300 billion. Of the amount, NHPC has pledged to invest Rs 288 billion (INR 180 billion). NHPC has already constructed around two dozens of hydropower and solar electricity projects that are producing 7,071 MW of electricity in India. Likewise, the company is currently working on 11 under construction projects with a total capacity of 7,539 MW. In addition, the company has a number of big projects in the pipeline.

The projects developed by NHPC have been producing 24.85 billion units of electricity. In fiscal year 2021/22, NHPC earned INR 81.81 billion by selling electricity. As per the financial report for the fiscal year, the company earned net profit of INR 35.38 billion. It has been developing hydropower projects in Sikkim, Arunachal, Himanchal, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Laddakh of India.