Operation of 10 MW Lower Modi ‘1’ blocked by floods

PARBAT: JULY 12 – Production of the Lower Modi ‘1’ Hydropower Project, which was shut down due to flood damage, has resumed. The production of the project, which was halted due to floods on the night of July 7, resumed operations on Sunday evening after a week.

The flood in Sundarekhola in Dobilla of Kushma Municipality-8 of the district had damaged the source and about 300 meters of the canal. The floods in Modikhola on the same day also damaged the source. Managing Director of United Modi Hydropower Limited, Upendra Gautam, informed that the production has been started from Sunday evening after continuous maintenance.

According to him, the 300-meter-wide canal, which is four meters wide and four meters high, was completely buried by the floods in Sundarekhola. The project staff and other workers were mobilized and repaired daily by 50 people. Nine point five megawatts of electricity has been generated since Sunday evening, said Gautam. The project is estimated to have caused a loss of Rs 4.5 to 50 million due to the floods. He said that the details of the damage to the source could not be ascertained as the flow of Modikhola was high. There was no damage to the production house of the project.

Rajaram Acharya, site engineer of Lama Construction, a construction company of the Mid-Hills Highway Project, and driver Indra Tharu were also swept away by the flood on the same day in Sundarekhola. The condition of Acharya and Tharu has not been ascertained yet. The flood-damaged Mid-Hill Highway has been operating unilaterally.