Nepal clears China plan for $1.6 billion hydroelectric dam

A parliamentary panel cleared the way for a Chinese company to build a $1.6 billion hydroelectric plant in Nepal, the Himalayan republic's biggest foreign investment programme, Nepali officials said on Monday. Nepal's Maoist-led government signed an agreement with China's Three Gorges International Corp in February allowing the firm to construct the 750-megawatt West Seti dam in the north-west.
The project, set to be completed in 2019, is expected to ease the crippling power shortage in Nepal whose economy is still emerging from a decade-long civil war - conflict that scared away investors and slowed infrastructure projects.