MYAGDI, July 31: The Rahughat Hydropower Project, currently under construction in Raghuganga Rural Municipality of Myagdi district, achieved a significant milestone on Tuesday with the breakthrough of its main tunnel. The project, with a capacity to generate 40 megawatts of electricity, is a subsidiary of Nepal Electricity Authority, promoted by Raghuganga Hydropower.

The main tunnel, which is 6,270 meters long, starts from the dam at the base of Dagnam in Raghuganga Rural Municipality-4 and ends at Tilkenichaur in Raghuganga Rural Municipality-3, according to the project’s Managing Director, Ganesh KC.

The breakthrough was accomplished by dividing the tunnel into four segments (audits). Raghuganga Rural Municipality Chairman Bhawa Bahadur Bhandari and the project’s Managing Director KC jointly activated a switch for the breakthrough of the 2,332-meter-long section of the tunnel linking the dam to Audit No. 2 at Agherikhola.

The tunnel construction includes 875 meters dug from Audit 1 and 1,458 meters from Audit 2. Lining work is ongoing in the 3,836 meters of Audit 2 and 3 tunnels, which had breakthroughs last March.

Chairman Bhandari expressed his satisfaction with the tunnel's completion, highlighting that the tunnel construction is the project's primary task. He also noted that the rural municipality has facilitated and coordinated the project's efforts.

The Rahughat Hydropower Project is being developed with a concessional loan of USD 67 million from the Indian EXIM (Export-Import) Bank, alongside joint investment from NEA and the Government of Nepal. The contract agreement for the project's construction was signed with civil contractors Jaiprakash Associates (JP) in 2074 BS. -- RSS