Kathmandu, July 19:

The Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), with assistance from the Himal Power Limited and United Nations Development Programme, is launching the Khimti Neighbourhood Development (KiND) Programme this year to uplift the status of 3,100 households based in the vicinity of the Khimti Hydropower Plant.

Under the three-year KiND programme, the AEPC will construct a 400 kilowatt mini-hydropower plant at the Halwa khola (stream) of Ramechhap and light 3,100 households. The programme also includes income-generating activities, social mobilisation and nature conservation initiatives. Talking to this daily, Dr Govinda Raj Pokharel, executive director of the AEPC, said, “The plant will be handed over to locals.”

He added that the electricity generated from the plant will be distributed to locals at the rate of Rs 4 per unit. The income thus generated will be collected in a fund instituted by locals, he said.

Apart from electrification of the neighbourhood, this programme will empower locals and help them generate income, Pokharel said.

The KHP is situated 100 km east of Kathmandu at the Khimti khola, which divides Ramechhap and Dolakha districts. The programme will benefit locals of both the districts.

“Hydropower plants earn millions through the utilisation of local resources, but the locals get nothing. KiND aims to share profit with the locals and ease their lives,” Pokharel said.