Rasuwa Floods Disrupt Essential Services

Sabika Shrestha

The flood in the Bhotekoshi River disrupted essential services including electricity, telephone, and internet across parts of Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Dhading, and Chitwan.

The flooding damaged hydropower projects and transmission lines, affecting power supply in the region.

Electricity, telephone, and internet services disrupted by the Bhotekoshi River flood in Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Chitwan, and Dhading have gradually started to resume.

The flood damaged 431 megawatts of electricity capacity from hydropower projects that have been constructed or are under construction along the Trishuli River corridor, as well as electricity transmission lines in the affected areas.

As a result, electricity services were disrupted in some parts of Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Dhading, and Chitwan, which also caused interruptions to telephone and internet services.

Thark Bahadur Thapa, Director of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), said that repair work on the flood-damaged transmission lines has begun, and electricity supply has been temporarily restored in some areas.

However, restoration in Rasuwa may take several days because transportation and access to the affected areas remain difficult.

Similarly, telephone services of Nepal Telecom were disrupted at 152 locations in the flood-affected areas.

As of Thursday morning, services have resumed in 60 locations.

Nepal Telecom’s technical teams have already reached the affected areas to restore services at the remaining locations.

The company said it is installing generators at locations where electricity has been cut off to restore telephone services.

Nepal Telecom expects services at the remaining locations to resume within two days.

The flood also caused damage to several hydropower projects. In Rasuwa, the affected projects include:

• Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project – 111 MW
• Langtang Khola Hydropower Project – 20 MW
• Langtang–Bhotekoshi Hydropower Project – 120 MW
• Chilime Hydropower Project – 22 MW

Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project (under construction) – 216 MW

Similarly, in Nuwakot, the affected projects include:

• Upper Trishuli 3A – 60 MW
• Upper Trishuli 3B (under construction) – 37 MW
• Trishuli Hydropower Station – 21 MW
• Devighat Hydropower Station – 14 MW

25 MW solar power plants constructed by the Nepal Electricity Authority.