5 March, Baitadi: The tunnel construction of the 30 – megawatt Chameliya Hydro Power Project at Balanch village of Shikhar VDC in Darchula has been completed.

The project construction work, which had slowed down, gained momentum following an instruction from Minister of Energy, Janardan Sharma.

Minister Sharma on February 11 had made an onsite visit to the construction site of the project and issued the directive for its completion at the earliest.

Of the total of 4.6 km tunnel, the construction of 843 meters had been too narrow. This prompted the project management to expand the narrow stretch of the tunnel and the work was done along 611 meters.

The work to expand the remaining 232 meters of the narrow stretch started on September 28, 2016 and completed only just yesterday, according to Project Chief, Ajay Dahal.

The Project aims to complete the test production by September this year and start generating power by December. RSS