By Shivaraj Bhatta

DHANGADHI: The promoter of West Seti Hydro Project — Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC)/ West Seti Hydro — purged 75 per cent of its employees on Wednesday. The project has also shut all the eight information centres in the Far Western region.

Saroj Raj Adhikari, deputy director-general of the project, said SMEC/West Seti Hydro was forced to take the decision as the Energy Ministry had sent a letter putting forth several conditions on January 30 though the China National Machinery and Export Corporation (CMEC) had asked the government to renew its licence for a year without any conditions.

Adhikari said the ministry was not positive towards the project. UCPN-Maoist has also been obstructing the project work.

He added the project had shut three information centres in Doti, two in Baitadi, one in Dadeldhura and two in Kailali. He said 160 employees, including 24 staffers of the information centres, were given the pink slip on Wednesday. They were given two months' salary in advance.

Adhikari said, “After the ministry's letter, the shareholders have been left disappointed.”

An agreement was reached to rope in ADB, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Limited of India and Nepal government to invest in the project that was to be implemented on the initiative of CMEC. According to the agreement, the project was to be implemented with a total budget of $1,600 million, of which four per cent was to be invested by the locals of the far-west region.

During his China visit in December, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had inked an agreement to give 51 per cent project share to CMEC, a company owned by the Chinese government. SMEC had begun the project work in 1994 with the objective of producing 750 MW electricity. The project had aimed to construct a dam over the Seti River , which flows through Doti, Dadeldhura, Baitadi and Bajhang districts. The work to construct the road up to the dam site was initiated after completing the International Energy Agency evaluation. The project has already been delayed for 12 years.

Anup Upadhyaya, spokesperson for Ministry for Energy, said: “The ministry had not put any conditions. Earlier the government had extended the licence of the project based on previous conditions. The information regarding the so-called new conditions put forth by the ministry are all wrong.” Upadhyaya claimed that the project was facing financial crunch.