HIDCL has made financing pledges amounting to Rs 3 billion to six hydro projects including the 42 MW Mristi Khola, 82 MW Lower Solu, 30 MW Khani Khola, 27 MW Dordi, 25 MW Kabeli B1 and 23.5 MW Solu Khola hydropower projects. All of them are scheduled to be completed by 2017. “Our memorandum of association allows us to develop the project ourselves,” said Deepak Rauniyar, chief executive officer of HIDCL. “And we have verbally asked the Energy Ministry to make available a viable project with a capacity of up to 100 MW.”

According to him, there have been several rounds of discussions about HIDCL taking the lead in financing one medium-capacity hydel project. “They are positive to our proposal,” he added. “We are also working on a proposal to formally request the government to allocate a project to us.”

Rauniyar said that HIDCL would not develop a hydro project by itself, but that it would play the leading

role in creating a company to build it. “There are domestic and international investors who are ready to invest in hydro projects developed under our initiative,” he added.

According to him, development partners are also ready to invest in hydropower projects led by HIDCL. The company has shown interest in developing the Nalsinggadh Hydropower Project under its leadership and it has submitted a concept note to the government.

The state-owned company currently holds resources amounting to Rs 9 billion, and none of this money has been spent on any hydro project. It has invested a certain amount in Power Transmission Company Nepal (PTCN) in which it has a 14 percent stake.

The company constructs and manages cross-border transmission lines on the Nepal side.

“As we have already pledged to finance a few hydro projects, it will happen once the developers complete investing their equities,” said Rauniyar.