The Asian Development bank (ADB) has approved a grant to help develop the West Seti hydropower project in Nepal, which is to supply electricity across the Himalayan border to India.
ADB approved a grant of US$300,000 for technical assistance in preparing the project will be given by its Regional Cooperation and Integration Fund.
More specifically, the Bank said In a statement that the grant would help the government of Nepal to develop a framework for revenue management once the 750MW project starts to export electricity to India. The government of Nepal is to contribute the remaining funds of US$100,000 required for the technical assistance work.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the export of electricity has been in force with Power Trading Corp of India since 2003. The project is to be built on the Seti River in west Nepal and as a storage scheme would competitively help meet peak load needs of the electricity grid in northern India.
The scheme is being developed by West Seti Hydroelectric Corp Ltd with the Snowy Mountain Energy Corp, the former having signed a project agreement with the government of Nepal 10 years ago.
ADB said it would later provide funding for the government of Nepal’s equity participation in the project, which is to be constructed under build, operate and transfer (BOT) concession of 30 years from when the licence is issued.