By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, Sept. 6: The Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project, a much-talked national pride project, is scheduled to start commercial production from Thursday (9 September 2021).

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project Bigyan Prasad Shrestha said that commercial production from all six units of the project would begin as soon as the main test of all the units was completed.

The test of the sixth unit of the project was completed successfully on Sunday.

The project is about to start commercial power generation at a full capacity of 456 MW.

The project, which was under construction in Bigu Rural Municipality-1, Lama Bagar in Dolakha district for the past 10 years, has reached the stage of commercial production from all six units.

Six units of 76 MW each have been connected to the 456 MW project constructed under domestic investment.

Earlier, the first unit of the project had started generating 76 MW of electricity commercially from 5 July 2021.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had inaugurated Nepal’s first largest hydropower project under domestic investment virtually from Kathmandu on Monday evening on July 5.

Although the project runs at full capacity from morning to evening and during peak hours, it is planned to run only as per the need at night, Shrestha said.

The project was started for the first time on April 28 by channeling water into the tunnel.

The electricity generated by the project is connected to the newly constructed 220/132 KV New Khimti substation at Phulasi in Manthali Municipality-13 of Ramechhap through a 47 km long 220 KV double circuit transmission line.

The New Khimti Substation is connected to the Nepal Electricity Authority's 400 KV substation at Dhalkebar.

This project of 822 metres head and daily picking run of the river will be able to operate at full capacity for four-and-a-half hours even in the dry season. The project will generate 2.28 billion units of electricity annually, Shrestha said.

The revised cost of the project has so far reached Rs. 52 billion excluding interest and the total cost of the project, including interest, is estimated to reach around Rs. 84 billion.

The project, which faced various technical complications, took twice as long as the target period to be completed. The project, which started construction in 2067 BS, had been delayed by six years than the target deadline.