January 23, 2004
Inauguration of Kaligandaki "A" Hydroelectric Project
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His Majesty King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev graciously inaugurated the Kaligandaki "A" Hydroelectric Project in an auspicious ceremony held on 22 January at Beltari, Shyangja district. Her Majesty Queen Komal Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah was also present on the ceremony.
Right Honorable Prime Minister and Minister of Water Resources Surya Bahadur Thapa, Honorable NPC Vice-chairman Dr. Shankar Prasad Sharma, His Excellency the Ambassador of Japan to Nepal Mr. Zenji KAMINAGA, Representative of Asian Development Bank Mr. Yoshihiro IWASAKI, Representative of JBIC Mr. Mikio HATAEDA and high level officials from the different organizations of HMG/N and donor representatives were also present on the occasion.
HE Mr. KAMINAGA reiterated that Japan has been playing a role of true and dedicated development partner of the Kingdom of Nepal in its development endeavor and is also committed to support Nepal in future to the extent possible. In light of this, the Government of Japan has placed much importance on this particular project as one of the most prominent infrastructures of Nepal, which could play significant roles in the socio-economic activities in the days to come.
Kaligandaki "A" Hydroelectric Project is a long awaited mega-project, and so far, the largest and most prominent run-off-river type project ever initiated in Nepal with installed capacity of 144 MW of electricity. To realize this project, the Government of Japan extended a loan assistance of 160 million US$ (50% of total foreign assistance to the Project) through the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) sharing with the other financing partners of His Majesty's Government of Nepal, the NEA and ADB.
The JBIC has been involved in the socio-economic development endeavors of the Kingdom of Nepal by extending yen-loan assistance to a number of projects, particularly in the power sector. The Kulekhani I and Kulekhani II Hydroelectric Projects were implemented under the yen-loan assistance of JBIC in 1975 and 1981 respectively which are still being a catalyst to fulfill the power demands of NEA. In addition to these, JBIC has also extended yen-loan assistance for the Kulekhani Disaster Prevention Project. Till date, JBIC has extended a total of 39.265 billion Japanese yen to Nepal for the power sector, which is nearly 62% of total loan assistance from JBIC to Nepal.
On the occasion, HE Mr. KAMINAGA illustrated that after the commencement of the Kaligandaki "A" Hydroelectric Project, Japan's contribution to the power sector in Nepal reaches a capacity of 236MW, which is about 40% of the present total power installed capacity of NEA. As a result, Kaligandaki "A" Hydroelectric Project contributed to escalate NEA's power supply coverage from 18% to 22% of the total population.
Moreover, HE Mr. KAMINAGA stated that the newly generated Kaligandaki electric power is delivered beyond Shyanja district to Terai area, Pokhara area, Kathmandu valley and other parts of Nepal for the benefit of the people of Nepal in helping their efforts of economic, social, health and educational development and thereby contributes much to a devoted and powerful nation-building of the Kingdom.
HE Mr. KAMINAGA also expressed sincere appreciation to all the concerned government officials, experts and contractors assigned to this project for their tireless efforts in completing this project and congratulated them on its successful implementation. He further expressed his confidence that commissioning of this hydroelectric project would be yet another milestone in the existing friendly and cooperative relationships between the people of Japan and Nepal.
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