Expressions of interest are sought by 26 June for three distinguished individuals to form a panel of experts on the Lower Seti (Tanahu) project: a hydropower/civil engineer (a team leader); hydrologist/sediment expert; and, geotechnical engineer/geologist.
The primary responsibility of the POE is to provide an independent review of the detail design and other reports being carried out by the consultant, a joint venture of India’s WAPCOS and Nippon Koei of Japan. In addition, the scope of the panel also covers compliance checking as per the Asian Development Bank’s safeguard policy statement. The tenure of the POE will span until the end of the design phase (excluding interface phase), although in line with international good practise it is expected to be maintained during construction supervision up to the commissioning of the project and initial operational period of one year. Shortlisting is expected to take place on 15 August with the panel members to begin work on 1 October 2020.
The project, located 150 km west of Kathmandu near Damauli, is being financed by the ADB, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the European Investment Bank. A contract for the design and construction of the project’s headworks, including a 45 m-high concrete gravity dam with spillway, plunge pool and downstream auxiliary dam, as well as river diversion works comprising two diversion tunnels and temporary cofferdams, was first tendered in April 2019 and re-launched in February 2020. WAPCOS and Nippon Koei were contracted in May 2019 to carry out detailed engineering design and to prepare bidding documents. The project will also comprise a water conveyance system consisting of an inverted D-shaped headrace tunnel, 8 m in diameter and 5.5 km long, a surge shaft 18 m in diameter and 55.26 m high at the end of headrace tunnel, a vertical drop shaft 80 m high and 7.2 m in diameter, a steel penstock 6.5 m in diameter and 100 m long including bifurcation, a surface powerhouse equipped with two Francis turbines (with rated power of 53.3 MW each) each coupled with a 61.2 MVA synchronous generator, and a 250 m-long tailrace canal to discharge the water from the powerhouse into the river Trishuli.
Tender notices for the three individual consulting contracts can be viewed on the ADB website at: www.adb.org.
Expressions of interest should be submitted via the ADB’s Consultant Management System.
For further information, contact: Pradeep Kumar Thike, Project Officer; Email: info@thl.com.np.
