Civil Group to Invest Rs 1.5 Billion in Housing

Civil Group is planning to invest Rs 1.5 billion in the housing industry. The group is conducting a feasibility study in order to develop housing projects in four cities outside the Kathmandu Valley. According to the Chairman of the group, Ichchha Raj Tamang, the study will be completed within the current fiscal year. 

Tamang said that the group plans to expand real estate market outside the Kathmandu Valley. The feasibility study is being carried out in cities such as Pokhara, Hetauda, Dharan and Itahari. Tamang stated that the construction process will begin within the next fiscal year. He also added, “Lately, people are attracted towards individual houses rather than to apartments. So, we have planned to increase investment in the housing.” 

As of now, the group has been investing in projects only based in Kathmandu Valley. So far, Rs 7 billion is the amount invested by the group in developing housing, apartments and commercial complexes. The group says that the houses that will be built outside the valley will be comparatively cheaper. Tamang stated that the houses will be built taking into consideration consumer’s demands and buying capacity. 

The housing sector has been experiencing a slowdown for the last three years but it has been showing signs of improvement lately. Tamang said that the expansion to newer cities is being done to address upcoming demands. Civil Group is planning to expand to more cities in the future.

400 MW of Clean Energy to Be Developed

New Generation Power (NGP), a Chicago-based renewable energy company, and Hydro Solutions (HSL), a Nepali hydropower company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop clean energy projects with a total capacity of around 400MW in Nepal. The MoU was signed by Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, Chairman and Nisha Joshi, Senior Vice-President (International) of NGP and Gyanendra Lal Pradhan, Executive Chairman of Hydro Solutions and Suman Neupane, President of NIC. Manish Miglani, the founder of MEI, facilitated this signing of MoU between NGP and HSL. 

According to Pradhan, the companies will now jointly work to develop, manage and even acquire clean energy projects in Nepal. HSL and NGP will also form a consortium including two of the latter’s partners -Nepal Infrastructure Consult (NIC) and Moksha Energy International (MEI) – to work together to develop and manage clean energy projects in the country,” Pradhan said. 

NGP, in association with some of its partners such as Panasonic, Martifer Solar or Toshiba,, has already built renewable energy projects (solar, biomass, wind, hydro, waste to energy, and geo-thermal energy) worth over 200MW in different parts of the world. Other projects, with a total capacity of around 3,000 MW, are still in the pipeline. HSL is a rapidly expanding energy company in Nepal. The company is already operating the 4.2MW Baramachi hydel project in Sindhupalchowk. Similarly, the 3.5 MW Charnawati in Dolakha, 10MW Upper Mai in Ilam, 20MW Lower Modi in Parbat and the 6.1MW Upper Mai ‘C’ in Ilam are in the final stage of construction. Likewise, the 42.9MW Ankhu in Dhading, 280MW Kaligandaki Gorge in Mustang and the 2.4MW Lower Charnawati in Dolakha are in the pre-construction phase, according to HSL’s website. 

NIC is a New York-based company which represents NGP in Nepal. MEI explores viable and creditable clean energy projects from around the globe on behalf of NGP. “HSL has its own portfolio of projects whose cumulative capacity is more than 400MW. So, finding suitable projects is not going to be a problem. Also, we may acquire other projects as well,” said Pradhan.