After three months of spending the night in darkness, the residents of Samagaun and Samdo in northern Gorkha have finally been able to turn on the electricity. The lights started to turn on a few days ago after the equipment of the damaged Samagaun micro-hydropower project was repaired, informed Bir Bahadur Lama, chairperson of the project.

There is no motorable road to Samagaun and Samdo located in Chumanubri Rural Municipality-1 in the Manaslu region. Lama said “It could not be repaired in Nepal. It took a long time to bring the equipment from India for repair.” He said that the repaired equipment in the village, which does not have a motorable road, was transported to the village by helicopter. “The cost of transporting it by helicopter was also very high. Though we were able to turn on the lights in Lhosar.”

An organization called Kaduri generated 100 kW of electricity from the Samagaun Hydropower Project for about 300 households in Chumanubri-1 Samagaun and Samdo five years ago.