Kathmandu, Nov 1: The loan agreements for the amount of USD 453.2 million were signed on Friday for the construction of the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project.    
Nepal Water and Energy Development Company Private Limited (NWEDC) signed the financing agreements with International Finance Corporation (IFC), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Export-Import bank of Korea (K-EXIM), Korea Development Bank (KDB), CDC Group PLC (CDC), Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), PROAPRCO Development Financial Institution (PROPARCO), and The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) for the loan financing of Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project amidst a special signing ceremony organized in Kathmandu on Friday.     
The NWEDC informed that the loan amounts in USD signed with each of IFC, ADB, AIIB, K-EXIM, KDB, CDC, FMO, PROPARCO and OFID are 161.3 million, 60 million, 39.6 million, 100 million, 30.8 million, 21.9 million, 15.4 million, 11 million, and 13.2 million, respectively. The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) as the Offshore Account Bank and Nepal Investment Bank (NIB) as the Onshore Account Bank were also parties to the agreements.    
The signing ceremony was held in the presence of Minister for Finance, Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada, and Minister for Energy, Barshaman Pun. The event was also attended by more than 200 representatives from several government offices including Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Nepal Electricity Authority, and the sponsors, lenders, and local stakeholders.    
The NWEDC is the special purpose company established by the project sponsors and shareholders for the development of Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project. The sponsors of the project are Korea South East Power Co. Ltd. (KOEN), Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd., and Kyeryong Construction Industrial Co., Ltd., and IFC. Even a local partner will be shareholders.    
Moreover, the equity shares up to 10 percent will be allocated for project affected people as per local shares provision in project development agreement. The main sponsor, KOEN is a Korean government-owned power generation company which owns and operates more than 10,000 MW of power plants in Korea.    
The Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project, located in Rasuwa, will generate annual energy of 1,533 GWh from three power generating units of total installed capacity.    
Earlier, the project development agreement (PDA) of the project was signed between the government of Nepal and the company on 29 December 2016. The power purchase agreement (PPA) was signed between the company and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) on 28 January 2018 based on the posted rate of NEA.    
The construction of the project will be done based on a fully wrapped EPC contract.    
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