MYAGDI: Construction of the 65-megawatt Myagdi Khola Hydropower Project has begun in Bagar, Dhawalagiri Rural Municipality–4, Myagdi district.
Promoted by Hydro Village Pvt. Ltd., the project has simultaneously initiated work on access roads, the powerhouse, tunnels and transmission infrastructure.
Project Chief Uttam Poudel said an access route has been established from Bagar village to the dam site at Dobhan through a temporary diversion road, along with the setup of a project office in Bagar. He added that excavation of the 1,130-metre-long tailrace tunnel—designed to discharge water from the powerhouse—has already started.
“Until permanent road construction is completed along the Bagar–Tatopani section, we have built a diversion road along the banks of the Myagdi River, extending access to the dam site at Dobhan by around 10 kilometres,” Poudel said.
“The civil contractor, Geography Infrastructure, has begun excavation of the tailrace tunnel and is preparing to start work on the powerhouse, dam and headrace tunnel.”
According to the project design, water from a dam to be constructed at the confluence of the Myagdi and Kunabang rivers will first be collected in a sand-settling basin (descender) measuring 75 metres in length and 11.9 metres in height.
It will then be conveyed through a 710-metre pipeline into a 3,600-metre tunnel. The water will drop 607 metres through a 750-metre penstock pipeline to an underground powerhouse located inside the mountain.
The run-of-river project includes a 209-metre vertical shaft, a 230-metre pressure tunnel, a 587-metre inclined tunnel and a 757-metre penstock pipe system. The powerhouse will house three turbine units.
The project is expected to generate 117.82 GWh of electricity during the dry season and 264.45 GWh during the monsoon.
A 640-metre tunnel is currently being excavated in the hill between Bagar and Tatopani to facilitate construction of the underground powerhouse. In parallel, work has begun on a 132 kV double-circuit transmission line to connect the project to the national grid via the Dandakhet substation, located 16.5 kilometres from Bagar, said Buddhiraj Adhikari, the project’s public relations officer.
The project, estimated to cost around Rs 13 billion (approximately Rs 200 million per megawatt), aims to begin power generation by Chaitra 2084 BS. Civil works have been underway since Poush, while procurement of electromechanical and hydromechanical contractors is currently in progress, according to Project Manager Pramesh Thapa.
Meanwhile, preparations are underway to establish a Nepali Army base camp at Bhainsikharka within the next few days to ensure security during blasting operations. Excavation of the main tunnel will proceed following the camp’s establishment.
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