Kathmandu, August 23 :

Work on the 750-MW West Seti Hydro Electricity Project (WSHEP) will begin by next August, a top official associated with it has said.

“Should events take their normal course, it is anticipated that the work on the project will start after Monsoon of 2007,” said Bill Bultitude, Managing Director, West Seti Hydro Limited (WSHL), the Australia-based power developer.

Bultidude is now in Nepal, holding meetings with the government officials and other stakeholders on his mission to look at the political risk over the mega-project.

“We have found that the present government is very positive to complete the project within the timeframe ,” he said.

The proposed project, which acquired its licence in1994 from the government, is located in far western Nepal, on a loop of the West Seti river, around 82 km upstream of its confluence with the Karnali river.

It is a storage type project, with a rated capacity of 750 MW, maximum output of 810 MW and is expected to generate an average 3300 Gwh a year. It is hoped the construction of one of the biggest ever planned project, will be completed within five and a half years.According to an estimate made in 1997, it would cost US $ 1,098 million and would involve constructing a 195- meter high dam, a 1,989 ha reservoir, 6.7 km headrace tunnel and a 620- meter- long tailrace tunnel, and a 100.3 km long 400 KV double circuit transmission line from the power station to Dhangadhi, according to the company. The company has negotiated a plant designing and building contract with China Machinery and Equipment Import Expert Corporation (CMEC), which has also expressed interest to acquire equity in the project.

Similarly, a group of Chinese banks consisting of Export and Import Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Development Bank have indicated interest to provide credit to the tune of US $ 1 billion to the project. Bultitude also said that the company is also waiting for some Nepali investors too.