Tamakoshi get EPF nod for fund

The much-talked 309 Megawatt (MW) hydro project is going to be built. The board meeting of Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) decided to finance the project as principal investors.
The highly attractive and low-cost project had been awaiting decision on its fate from the Employees' Provident Fund and Nepal Electricity Authority for long.
The EPF agreed today to invest a total of Rs 12 billion – Rs 10 billion in loan and two billion in shares, following the consent of the Ministry of Finance to invest on the Tamakoshi project. Earlier, there was a confusion on whether the project should be built on domestic or foreign investment.
As the EPF has decided to invest, Citizen Investment Trust (CIT), different banks and Rastriya Beema Sansthan (RBS) also are joining in for the hydel project.
The peaking run-of-river project Upper Tamakoshi that has 309 MW capacity is estimated to cost around Rs 27.44 billion. "Out of which 70 per cent will be invested jointly by NEA and EPF and 30 per cent would be raised by floating shares to the people and financial institutions — Citizen Investment Trust, Rastriya Beema Sansthan and other financial institutions," said chief of the project Mrigendra Bahadur Shrestha.
The first phase of the hydro project will generate 309 megawatt and in next ten years it will be upgraded to 556 Megawatts, said project chief Shrestha. "If, the project kicks-off in 2009, it will be completed by 2019," he said, adding that the project will take 10 years to complete.
It is thought to be spinning money after 30 years. "NEA will be earning a huge amount of money that can help construct at least one hydroproject every year."
The project will float 10 per cent of the shares to the locals of Dolakha district, where the project is being constructed.

IN SET
The ownership pattern
NEA — 51 per cent
EPF — 20 per cent
Dolakha residents — 10 per cent
General public — 10 per cent
NEA employees — 5 per cent
Financial Institutions — 4 per cent