Tanahun Hydropower Limited has begun construction of an access road for the 126-megawatt Lower Seti Hydropower Project, which the company is planning to develop in Tanahun district.

The company is currently constructing the 140-megawatt Tanahun Hydropower Project and has moved forward with the Lower Seti project to utilize surplus water released from the existing project, Tanahun Hydropower Project Chief Shyamji Bhandari said.

According to Bhandari, the construction company has started work on building the access road and establishing a project office as part of the preparatory phase. The detailed project report (DPR) for the Lower Seti Hydropower Project has already been completed.

The project will use regulated water released from the Tanahun Hydropower Project along with additional inflow from the Madi River to generate electricity in the downstream area. The land acquisition process required for various project structures has also progressed, with proposals for acquiring private land submitted to the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation for approval.

Under the project, a 32-metre-high dam will be constructed on the Seti River near Sarangghat in Bandipur Rural Municipality–6 and Devghat Rural Municipality–3. Water will be conveyed through a 6.8-kilometre-long tunnel passing through Devghat–3 and 4 and discharged into a semi-underground powerhouse to be built on the right bank of the Kali Gandaki River at Devghat, about 500 metres downstream from the confluence of the Seti River.

Areas likely to be affected by the project include Bandipur Rural Municipality–6; wards 13 and 14 of Byas Municipality; wards 2, 3 and 4 of Devghat Rural Municipality; wards 1 and 3 of Rishing Rural Municipality; wards 5 and 6 of Anbukhaireni Rural Municipality; and parts of Bharatpur Metropolitan City–29.

A semi-underground powerhouse will be constructed at Gaighat in Devghat–4. The electricity generated will be connected to the national grid through the 220 kV Damauli–New Bharatpur transmission line constructed under the Tanahun Hydropower Project. For this purpose, approximately two kilometres of additional transmission line will be built.

The semi-reservoir-based Lower Seti Hydropower Project will have a reservoir stretching about 12 kilometres upstream from the dam site to Sundegaun. The project is expected to generate around 520 million units of electricity annually, with an estimated cost of Rs 25 billion.

The company has already obtained a power generation survey licence for the project. In addition, consultancy services for preparing the detailed engineering design and bidding documents were contracted on April 11, 2019 (Chaitra 29, 2075 BS) with a joint venture of WAPCOS India and Nippon Koei Japan. The consultancy is being funded through a grant of approximately USD 3.5 million provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).