Tanahu Hydropower Project

Tanahu Hydropower Project is located on the right bank of Seti River, about 150 km West
of Kathmandu near Damauli, the district headquarters of Tanahu District. The storage
type project is envisaged to have an installed capacity of 140 MW with an estimated annual
energy generation of 590 GWh. The Project is designed for at least six hours of peaking
operation during the driest month of the year. 

As per the Project Administration Manual (PAM), the total financial cost of the project was estimated to be 505 MUSD as of January 2013 for which the funding arrangements have been made after signing the respective loan agreements with ADB, JICA and EIB. THL has
also concluded the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with NEA on 29 June 2018 as a maiden PPA for storage type hydropower projects.

Project Status and Progress

All pre-construction works including the access road and a bridge across Seti River, the camp facilities and the 33/11 construction power sub-station of capacity 8 MVA have been
completed under the National Competition Bidding. The company has distributed 10.98
MUSD to 501 affected HHs out of total 547 affected HHs (compensation success
rate of 91.6%) as compensation payments for the acquisition of land and structures
including livelihood support allowances. The compensation distribution to the remaining
HHs shall be continued during the current FY 2020/21.

Major Construction Packages

Package 1: The procurement of Package 1 (Headworks) has been significantly delayed due to unavoidable termination of the Contract with CMC di Ravenna, Italy and the rejection of all bids received for the re-bidding, being substantially non-responsive to the requirements of bidding documents. After the re-invitation of Re-bid II on 28 February 2020 and the opening of bids on 06 July 2020, the evaluation of technical bids is underway with the supports from the Project Supervision
Consultant (PSC).

Package 2: The contract agreement of the Package 2 (Waterway, Powerhouse and Related Equipment) was signed on 01 October 2018 with M/S Sinohydro Corporation Limited, China. After mobilization to the site and the completion of site establishment works including camp facilities, batching and crushing plants etc., the Contractor has initiated the major construction works under the Contract. 

The Contractor is currently being engaged in protection of slopes along with the construction of side drains on the access road to the surge tank. About 128 m out of 188 m of the cable tunnel has been excavated with the temporary support works, whereas the excavation of Main Access Tunnel (MAT) has been initiated with the installation of necessary supports at the tunnel portal. 

Package 3: THL and KEC International Limited, India signed the Contract Agreement for Package 3 (220 kV Transmission Line) on 25 December 2018. The Contractor completed the detail and check survey along the TL alignment and the geological investigation at the tower locations. Upon successful testing of DB/DC Type Towers at the Contractor’s testing laboratory, the design of DB Type tower has been approved by the PSC. The Contractor has started delivering the Tower Stubs, ACSR Conductor, Earthwire and Insulators to the site.