February 11: Electricity generated from Chameliya Hydropower Project has been connected to the national grid from Saturday with the formal inauguration of the project which was initiated some 11 years ago. The 30 MW project has two turbines having capacity of 15 MW each.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the hydropower project, which is located at Balach of Darchula district. He went to the power house of the project to attend the inaugurating ceremony. Addressing the ceremony, he said that the locals of far-west should get the benefits from the project first of all.

“Depite the delay in the project, the completion of Chameliya Hydropower Project will help in the development of the far-western region,” Kulman Ghising, executive director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) said, adding that the roads and other infrastructures constructed for the project will come very handy for the development of the area.

The far-western region, now named as Province  7 in the new federal structure, has a demand of 45 MW for electricity. According to Prabal Adhikari, spokesperson at NEA, the completion of the project shows that far-western region has enough potential to be self-reliant on electricity.