Kathmandu: A high-level delegation from the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation today carried out a field inspection of the 40-megawatt Rahughat Hydropower Project, which is being developed by Raghuganga Hydropower, an auxiliary company of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). The delegation aimed to assess the ongoing progress and expedite the completion of the project.
According to National News Agency Nepal, the team, which included India’s ambassador to Nepal, Naveen Srivastava, energy secretary Suresh Acharya, and NEA managing director Hitendra Dev Shakya, directed the contractor company representatives to accelerate the construction efforts. The Indian Government, the Energy Ministry, and the NEA have expressed concerns over the project’s progress, as it is likely to miss the construction deadline set for June 2025.
The project currently reports 79.50 percent physical progress. Rahughat project civil contractor Jaya Parakash Associates and electromechanical contractor Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) have requested an extension of the deadline to December 31, 2025. The project’s contract was originally signed in November 2017 with an initial deadline of around 45 months. This would be the third extension, with the current deadline ending on June 27, 2025.
During the visit, JP Associates’ manager Harish Agrawal and BHEL representative Harsh Bardhan appealed for an extension. The delegation, however, expressed concern over the repeated delays despite multiple deadline extensions.
The project, a collaboration between the NEA and the government, is being executed under a company model and follows the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) format. A soft loan of USD 67 million has been secured from the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank for its implementation. Initially, the contract was awarded to IVRCL, but it was annulled in 2015 due to the company’s deteriorating financial condition.