Punatsangchhu Hydroelectric project

India's Union Cabinet has actually approved cost revisions for Asia's intergovernmental arrangement aided by the Royal national of Bhutan to implement the 1, 200-MW Punatsangchhu-1 hydroelectric task on Bhutan's Punatsangchhu River.

In 2006, estimates the project amounted to US$554 million, but information circulated by the Union Cabinet on July 22 now task price the project at US$1.74 billion.

Bhutan, which includes a population of under one million, is sandwiched between east India in addition to Tibetan Plateau. Bhutan’s hill peaks are next-door neighbors to Mount Everest plus the Bhutan Himalayas are forever snow-capped and have glaciers that offer down very long valleys.

According to the Asian Investment Bank, about 75per cent of all of the electricity produced in Bhutan is exported to Asia as well as the income through the exports comprises 25% of the gross domestic product. Another 25per cent contribution towards the GDP is available in the form of hydropower infrastructure building.

The Punatsangchhu-I hydroelectric task is located in the Southern Himalayas, about 80 km east of Bhutan’s capital Thimphu. The project’s new concrete dam is 130 m high by 239 m in total and reaches throughout the Punatsangchhu River. The center includes an underground powerhouse that generate energy via six 200 MW turbines when total in 2019.

Asia is funding the project with a 40per cent grant and 60percent loan.

Relating to neighborhood reports, expense increases lead from numerous issues including really serious geological dilemmas faced by the project. In July 2013, the proper lender regarding the dam website slid by significantly more than 5 m.

Additional facility details feature:

• Two diversion tunnels at 11 m in diameter by 2724 m in total;
• Four desilting chambers, each 330 m very long by 18 m wide by 24 m deep;
• A headrace tunnel at 10 m in diameter by 8.9 km long;
• a rise shaft, 24.5 m in diameter by 128.5 m tall;
  
• Two force shafts at 6 m in diameter by 433 m long, and six penstocks at 3.32 m in diameter;
• A tailrace tunnel is 10 m in diameter by 1.3km lengthy;
  
• An underground transformer cavern that will accommodate 20 single-phase generator transformers each at 13.8 kV/400 kV and 82 MVA capacity; and
• Two dual circuit 400 kV transmission outlines, 186 kilometer in length.