• State-owned hydropower giant NHPC inked an initial pact with Nepalese utility Vidhyut Utpadan Company Ltd (VUCL) for developing a 480 MW Phukot Karnali hydroelectric project. 

• The MoU was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

• The signing of this MoU is a landmark step towards India-Nepal Joint Vision on Power Sector Cooperation.

• The project will use the flow from the Karnali River for power generation and the generated power will be fed into the integrated power system of Nepal. 

• The installed capacity of the project shall be 480 MW with an average annual generation of about 2,448 GWh. 

• This project is conceived as a Peaking Run-of-River (PRoR) type scheme.

• Vidhyut Utpadan Company is responsible to develop, build, own and operate large-scale hydropower projects in a public-private partnership model in Nepal.

NHPC

• NHPC was incorporated on November 7, 1975 as a private limited company under the name ‘National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Ltd’. 

• It was converted to public limited company in April 1986. The name of the company was changed to its present name ‘NHPC Limited’ in 2008.

• NHPC is a Schedule-A enterprise and a Miniratna company with 70.95 per cent ownership of the government of India. 

• NHPC is ranked as a premier organisation in the country for development of hydropower.

• It is a multi-disciplinary organization and has acquired sufficient expertise and state-of-the-art technology for investigation, planning, designing and executing large and small size hydropower projects. 

• It has the strength of highly qualified and experienced professionals in design and engineering, geo-technical engineering, construction planning and construction management for building hydroelectric projects. 

• The technical & engineering proficiency and experience of NHPC places it in a leading position in the field of hydropower development in India and neighboring countries.

• NHPC has an authorised share capital of Rs 15,000 crore, paid-up share capital of Rs 10,045.03 crore and an investment base of Rs 74,715.12 crore.

• NHPC’s total installed capacity is 7,097.20 MW including 1,546 MW in joint ventures, comprising 6,971.20 MW from 22 hydropower stations, 76 MW from two solar power projects and 50 MW from a wind power project.

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