Kathmandu. The Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Physical Infrastructure and Transport and Urban Development Kulman Ghising has said that the investment modality of Budhigandaki hydropower project with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts of national pride should be finalized immediately. He discussed the progress of the project with the Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Chiranjeevi Chatout and the officials of Budhigandaki Company Limited, and asked the company management to submit the modality soon through financial analysis.

According to Minister Ghising, investment can be facilitated by using land acquisition, use of forest area, compensation for tree felling, exemption from customs and value added tax and some amount of petroleum import tax in the project, while capital can also be collected from the issuance of ordinary shares of Nepal Electricity Authority.

He has made it clear that the project should have 50 percent equity capital and 50 percent debt so that the government does not have to burden the modality. According to the consultant's 2015 report, the cost of the project was 2 billion 590 million US dollars, while at the current price, 2 billion 770 million US dollars has reached 93 trillion 32 billion rupees.

It is proposed that if the company does not get six VGFs prepared in two modalities, the equity to debt ratio will be 25:75 and if VGFs are available it will be 30:70. The plan is to collect the equity amount from the government, authorities, employee provident fund, citizen investment fund, Nepal Telecom and general public.

About 90 percent progress has been made in acquiring land for the project, and out of 8,117 affected families in Gorkha and Dhading, 3,560 will be completely displaced.
Under the project, a 263 meter high curvature arch dam will be constructed at Dhading and Gorkha, which will create a reservoir in an area of ​​63 square kilometers and is estimated to generate 3.383 million units of electricity annually. Minister Ghising has said that Budhigandaki is a project of strategic importance from the point of view of energy security and that the government is intensifying its efforts to decide the investment modality soon.