Breakthrough made in main tunnel of Rahughat Hydropower

Myagdi, July 30: A breakthrough has been made of the main tunnel of Rahughat Hydroelectricity Project today. The project with a capacity to generate 40-megawatts power is under construction at Raghuganga Rural Municipality of Myagdi district. It is a subsidiary project of Nepal Electricity Authority while Raghuganga Hydropower is its promoter. 

The main tunnel is 6,270 metres long and starts from the dam at the base of Dagnam at the Rural Municipality-4 and ends at Tilkenichaur at the Rural Municipality-3, Project Managing Director Ganesh KC said. 

The Project said the breakthrough has been made dividing the tunnel into four audits. 

Raghuganga Rural Municipality Chairman Bhawa Bahadur Bhandari and Managing Director  KC made the breakthrough jointly pushing a switch in the 2,332 metres long tunnel linking the dam and the Audit No 2 at Agherikhola. 

Eight hundred and seventy-five metres of the tunnel has been dug from Audit 1 and 1,458 metres from Audit 2. Lining works are in progress on the 3,836 metres long Audit 2 and 3 tunnel that had seen breakthrough in last March.  

Bhandari, the Rural Municipality Chair, expressed happiness over the completion of the tunnel construction works, saying construction of the tunnel is the main work of the project. He said that the Rural Municipality has facilitated and coordinated in the project's works. 

The Project is being developed with the Indian EXIM (Export-Import) Bank's concessional loan of 67 million US Dollars, and the joint investment of NEA and the Government of Nepal. 

The contract agreement for the construction of the Project was reached with the civil contractors Jaiprakash Associates (JP) in 2074 BS. (RSS)