Bunakha hydropower project DPR reviewed

Delegates from Tehri Hydro Development Corporation India Limited (THDCIL), a joint venture of government of India and the government of Uttar Pradesh, yesterday presented the reviewed detailed project report (DPR) on the 180 MW Bunakha Hydroelectric Project in Chukha.

The reservoir scheme project will construct a 196-metre high dam with a storage capacity of 250 million cubic metres of water. This will facilitate water storage during rainy season for use during dry season.

The project site is near Bunakha village, which is approachable by a three-kilometre road starting from the Phuentsholing-Thimphu national highway, 105 km from Phuentsholing.

Officials have frozen most parameters of the project, and there will be further discussions on cost optimization.

Karma P, the project manager from the Department of Energy, said, “There is room for improvement to bring down the cost.”

Cost optimization

THDCIL has estimated the total project cost at Nu 29 billion, including the Interest During Construction (IDC) of Nu 4 billion.

Realizing that there is still room to reduce costs, Bhutanese officials have asked THDCIL to redo cost optimization, especially with regard to downstream benefits.

According to a DPR prepared in 1995, the reservoir project will help generate an additional 101 MW at Chukha and 205 MW at Tala.

Karma P said that, since the storage will help enhance power generation downstream at Chukha and Tala projects, the cost of constructing the dam will have to be shared by the two projects. THDCIL has not yet worked on the details of cost-sharing.

“The main basis for this project to be viable is the downstream benefits. If we have to take up the project on a stand-alone basis, it will not be viable because of the cost of the dam,” said Karma P.

Around 60 to 70 percent of the project cost is on the dam.

Officials are yet to discuss how the power generated from the project will be evacuated. Karma P said, “They [THDCIL] have taken the same basis as it was done in 1995, but today things have changed so they have not taken those into consideration.”

According to the outcome of the eighth Empowered Joint Group meeting, Druk Green Power Corporation and THDCIL will have to finalize the project agreement within three months. The construction is expected to start once the financial closure is completed.

Karma P said that, in the meanwhile, THDCIL should start pre-construction activities like building of access road to the project site, temporary bridges and housing colonies.

The project’s other features such as socio-economic and environmental studies, which have not been completed as yet.

Earlier, the project was proposed as a concrete gravity dam but now it will be a roller compacted concrete, which is faster to build. The construction period has been brought down to six years from eight years.

By Pushkar Chhetri