The 37.5 MW Chimkhola-Mangale-Rahughat Hydropower Project has been constructed in Raghuganga Rural Municipality of Myagdi. The project, promoted by Tudi Power Company Limited, has begun testing the dam, descender (water retention pond) and tunnel by pouring water into it.
Prakash Timilsina, the project’s resident engineer, informed that the testing of the physical structure has begun as per the schedule to start trial production on May 15. “The testing of the physical structure is being done by filling the dam, descender, tunnel and penstock pipeline with water,” he said. “The equipment installation at the power house has been completed and the transmission line is ready.”
Timilsina said that the penstock test was successful and no problems were seen in the tunnel, descender and dam, which were filled with water since Tuesday. A dam has been constructed in Bandi, Raghuganga Rural Municipality-8, and a 110-meter-long, 8-meter-high, and 30-meter-wide water retention pond has been constructed nearby.
A 950-meter-long penstock pipeline has been constructed to transport the water brought from the dam through a 5-kilometer, 300-meter-long tunnel to the power house at Bagar in Chimkhola, Raghuganga Rural Municipality-7.
The height of the outlet from the power house to the tunnel is 360 meters. The civil contractor for the project, whose construction began in November 2020, is Ramechhap Sherpa and South Asian Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. The tunnel was dug from four places.
A 14-kilometer-long 220 kV transmission line has been constructed from the power house to the switchyard built in the power house premises of the Rahughat Hydropower Project in Raghuganga Rural Municipality-3. The transmission line has 49 towers. The electricity generated from the project will be connected to the 220 kV Dana-Kushma transmission line through a ‘loop in, loop out’ (Lilo) method. The 48.5 MW Upper Rahughat Hydropower Project, promoted by Tudi Power, along with Chimkhola-Mangle-Rahughat, is estimated to cost Rs 14bn.
Upper Rahughat is also in the final stages of construction. Chimkhola-Mangle-Rahughat is the first hydropower project to be completed in the Rahughat Basin. 21.3 MW Thulokhola, and 22.3 MW Upper Thulokhola hydropower projects on the Rahughat River are nearing completion.
