PM Modi to Inaugurate 720 Mega Watt Mangdechhu Hydropower Project During Bhutan Visit

New Delhi, August 9, 2019:

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the 720 mega watt (MW) Mangdechhu hydropower project when he visits Bhutan on 17-18 August to underline the NDA government’s emphasis on India’s “neighbourhood first" policy.

India is helping Bhutan build 10,000 megawatts (MW) of hydropower with concessional finance, with the overall investment expected to be about $10 billion.

State run NHPC Ltd, India’s largest hydropower firm was the design and engineering consultant for the strategically important Mangdechhu project that was fully commissioned on 15 July. The run-of-the river project is located on river Mangdechhu in Trongsa Dzongkhag district in Central Bhutan. The bilateral agreement to build the project was signed between India and Bhutan on 30 April 2010.

This will be Modi’s first trip to Bhutan since the China-India military face-off in 2017, triggered by an intrusion by Chinese troops into territory claimed by Bhutan, and his first foreign trip since being re-elected earlier in the year.

It is to be mentioned that hydropower exports provide more than 40% of Bhutan’s domestic revenues, and constitute 25% of its GDP.

Apart from hydropower projects, India has also helped Bhutan build the Penden cement plant, Paro airport and the Bhutan Broadcasting Station.

Join us as we continue the awareness campaign to preserve the only Ramsar site in Assam which is facing immense threats (A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention). We need your help to preserve this site of great ecological importance. Join the #LetsSaveDeeporBeel campaign and tweet about it, and do tag us on Twitter. It is time to create awareness.