Kathmandu, November 3

In a bid to provide an impetus to the construction of hydropower projects in the country to be built under the basket fund and thereby enabling a healthy competition among them, the Directives on Licensing of Hydropower Projects-2075 has put in place pragmatic and encouraging provisions for the development of hydropower projects.

The hydropower projects whose feasibility study has been conducted could be constructed at their own cost or through foreign aid. Furthermore, the hydel projects whose survey licences were scrapped or applications submitted to obtain production licences were rejected or hydels whose feasibility study is being conducted could be allowed to construct their projects.

The projects under the basket fund could be constructed as per the government’s decision or through other means through competition.

For the feasibility study, the concerned authority must pay Rs one million for projects with capacity of one to five megawatts, Rs two million for projects with capacity of five to 10 megawatts and Rs three million for projects with capacity of 10 to 25 megawatts.

Similarly, projects with capacity of 25 to 100 megawatts will have to pay Rs eight million and projects with capacity of 100 to 150 megawatts will have to pay Rs 100 million for the feasibility study. Likewise, projects with capacity above 500 megawatts will have to pay more than Rs 100 million for the purpose.

The Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation had issued the directives on October 23. It has also scrapped the Directives on Licensing of

Hydropower Projects-2072.