Arun III is a hydro-electric project under construction on the Arun River in Sankhuwasabha District of

Koshi Province Koshi Province () is an autonomous Provinces of Nepal, province of Nepal adopted by the Constitution of Nepal on 20 September 2015. It covers an area of , about 17.5% of the country's total area. With the industrial city of Biratnagar as its cap ...

, Nepal. The project is of 900

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s capacity and will be one of the largest

hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, ...

plant in

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

. It is constructed by SJVN Arun III Power Development Company Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of

SJVN SJVN, formerly known as Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, is an Indian public sector undertaking in the Navratna Category and involved in hydroelectric power generation and transmission. It was incorporated in 1988 as Nathpa Jhakri Power Corporation, a ...

Ltd. The estimated cost is US$1.6 billion including $156 million to develop the transmission line. It will generate about 4,018.87 million units of electricity annually. In February 2020, financial closure was done by the governments of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. The project is constructed on a build-own-operate and transfer (BOOT) basis. SJVN will operate the plant for 30 years and then transfer the ownership to the Nepal government. During 30 years of operation, 21.9% of power will be provided to Nepal free of cost. The project's construction is expected to generate 3,000 jobs in Nepal and India.

Project details

The project consists of a 70m high, 466m wide concrete

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is ...

across the Arun River which will be able to store 13.94 million cubic meters of water. The dam will have six (now only five) sluice gates. There will be four underground desilting basins (they have since been removed from the proposal) having a length of 420m, a width of 16m and a height of 24m each. A 9.5m diameter tunnel having length of 11.74 km followed by 9.5m diameter two steel-lined pressure shafts and four penstocks will convey the flow to the powerhouse. The

tailrace A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous blade ...

tunnel is 192m long and has a diameter of 10m. Four vertical Francis turbine units of 225MW each will be housed in an underground powerhouse. The gross head is 308m and the design net head is 286.21m. The power evacuation will be done via a 300 km-long, 400kV transmission line to India. It will be routed from Diding to Dhalkebar, Nepal, and finally to Muzzafarpur, India. The civil contractor is

Jaiprakash Associates Jaiprakash Associates Limited, commonly known as Jaypee Group, is an Indian Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, with interests in engineering, construction, power, real estate, hospitality, IT, sports ...

. The hydro-mechanical contractor is Om Metals. The electro-mechanical contractor is

BHEL Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking and the largest government-owned electrical/ industrial technology company. It is owned by the Government of India, with administrative control under ...

. Total Management Services will monitor the environmental aspects. 269 families will be affected by the project construction, and they will be compensated by being provided with 30 units of electricity each free of cost every month.

History

The project was formed by Nepal Government in 1992. However, NGOs, environmental activists and individuals worried against rampant

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

affecting the culture and natural beauty of the Arun valley expressed concerns. There were also fears that this project was inappropriately large and would lead to further increases in the price of electricity. There was also a debate for the road to the project area concerning

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

and

habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological proces ...

. In 1995, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

decided to withdraw their support, effectively cancelling the project. In November 2014, the project resurfaced and a Project Development Agreement was signed. The surplus power from the project will be exported to India from Dhalkebar, Nepal to Muzaffarpur, Bihar. In 2017, the cabinet of India approved the project for construction.{{Cite web, url=http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2017-10-03/indian-pm-modi-likely-to-visit-nepal-this-month.html, title = Indian PM Modi likely to visit Nepal this month

References

Politics of Nepal Dams under construction Hydroelectric power stations in Nepal

Project details

History

See also

References