The Budhi Gandaki hydropower project, located in Central/ Western development region on the Budhi Gandaki river of Nepal, is a ‘storage-type project’ that aims to address the energy shortage in the country. The 1200 mw project, once listed in the BRI in 2017, was abandoned by the government owing to irregularities and delay in award process. As per reports, the project was awarded Chinese company without a competitive bidding process. However, in 2018, the government of Nepal has pledged China Gezhouba Group Corporation to resume the development of Budhi Gandaki hydropower project of worth USD 2.5 billion. The project further remained on hold for two years due to locals’ protests over the ‘depreciated replacement cost method’ (i.e. current cost of replacing the asset minus depreciation) government used to assess the value of their assets. The project is likely to restart as the government, in December 2021, has decided to not use the aforementioned method.
Source
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-nepal-hydropower-idUSKCN1M30CZ
Budhi Gandaki listed as component of BRI (kathmandupost.com)