UTHL forms committee to resume Upper Tamakoshi construction works

KATHMANDU:

Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Limited (UTHL), the developer of 456-megawatt Upper Tamakoshi hydroelectric project, has formed a four-member committee to initiate talks with workers, who have stopped working demanding a stake in the project.

The committee, formed under Sher Singh Bhat, a senior official of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the largest UTHL shareholder, has already engaged in a round of informal talks with agitated workers, according to UTHL Chairman and NEA Managing Director Mukesh Raj Kafle.

“We hope the committee will be able to resolve the issue at the earliest,” Kafle said.

Construction works at the hydroelectric project in Dolakha district came to a halt 10 days ago after workers launched protest programmes demanding up to 500 units of shares for each of over 800 workers employed at the site.

Sonam Sherpa, president of Nepal Electricity, Painter, Plumber and Construction Workers Union, which is leading the protest at the site, had previously told The Himalayan Times that the protest was launched after ‘the project developer showed biasness towards workers by not giving them a stake in the government-owned project, while allotting shares to employees of lending institutions which are charging interest on loans that they have extended.

“I think these shares are more important to us because we are informal sector employees, who are not covered by schemes like provident fund,” he said.UTHL has not clearly said whether it would consider these demands. But it has said works should first resume at the site and workers should engage in dialogue to resolve the issue.

Earlier, locals, especially those living in Singati area, who are entitled to 70 units of shares in the project each, had also created obstructions at the project site, demanding additional shares. But these locals have agreed to settle the dispute through dialogue.

Many are now eyeing shares of the hydro project as it has already completed over 70 per cent of work and many assume its share prices will go up significantly once its trading begins on the stock market.

But as the protests are getting prolonged, the project is expected to be delayed, with possibility of cost overrun.

The project, which was supposed to be completed by mid-July 2016, had previously extended the deadline to February 2017. If project completion deadlines are extended in this manner, the project’s cost will inflate from existing estimate of Rs 35.29 billion.

The run-of-the-river project, being financed by domestic financial institutions and companies, is located at Lamabagar village development committee. The largest shareholder in the project is NEA, which has a stake of 41 per cent. Other shareholders include: Nepal Telecom (NT) (six per cent), Citizen Investment Trust (CIT) (two per cent), Rastriya Beema Sansthan (RBS) (two per cent), public (15 per cent), locals of Dolakha (10 per cent), and depositors of Employees Provident Fund (EPF), and employees of NT, RBS, CIT and EPF (24 per cent).

Earlier, UTHL had decided to float 10.59 million units of shares among locals of Dolakha, 4.07 million units of among employees of NEA and UTHL, 18.30 million units of shares among depositors of EPF, 3.05 million units of shares among employees of NT, RBS, CIT and EPF, and 15.89 million units of shares among general public. These shares come with a face value of Rs 100.

Source: THT