Kathmandu, May 09, 2018 : Five months after the deal government cancelled an agreement with China’s Gezhaouba Group,the Nepal government is planning to issue a global call for qualified companies to bid for the Budhigandaki Hydropower Project. Barshaman Pun, the Mister for Energy told the reporters at a meet in Kathmandu.
Talking to the media persons in Kathmandu, Pun said, “We are not going to handover the project without competition, a global call for qualified companies to bid for the project will be issued soon.” He also added that the mega project would be developed by mobilizing domestic resources.
The 1,200 MW project was supposed to be built by a Chinese company but the government revoked the agreement under pressure from various parties including Naya Shakti Party, Nepal led by Dr Baburam Bhattarai, last year. They had demanded that the deal be scrapped and and the project be built by country itself with domestic investment.
The agreement was also controversial for the reason that it was handed over to the Chinese company without tender process and was considered unprofitable for the country as the capacity of the company assigned to complete the project was also questionable, according to the sources.
