KHANDBARI: Developer Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam has revised the expected output from Arun III project, estimating that the power station can generate 800 to 850 megawatt of electricity.

Devendra Wardera, project manager, Sutlej JVN, which is authorised to build the power station in eastern Nepal, said a survey it had undertaken showed that up to 850MW could be generated from the plant, against 402MW as shown by an earlier World Bank survey.

Sutlej, an Indian corporation, started the survey of the project on November 12, 2008. It will now spend two years for road construction and management of other necessary resources. Sutlej is also studying the feasibility of producing the volume of power with a single tunnel, despite an earlier finding of having to build two tunnels.

With the revised generation capacity, Nepal stands to get 172.2MW of electricity form the project as per the agreed terms. It was earlier 88.8MW.

According to Hariram Subedi, Nepal representative of Sutlej, the total cost for Arun III (850MW) is Rs 100 billion, an increase of 40 per cent. Over the next two years, 60 km of road will be constructed up to the proposed powerhouse site at Diding and the dam site at Phyaksinda in Num VDC of Sankhuwasabha district. The road is estimated to cost Indian Rs 1.45 billion for the company.

Ten MW of power is required to carry out construction works. However, no decision has been taken whether the project will use generators or produce electricity from a river in the district for the purpose. Project manager Wardera said they were ready to produce hydro-electricity to meet the urgent need if reasonably permitted to do so. "Alternatively, we will produce power with generators of 3MW capacity each," he added.