{"id":61058,"date":"2026-02-04T12:58:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=61058"},"modified":"2026-02-07T07:36:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T02:06:43","slug":"punatsangchhu-ii-hydroelectric-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/punatsangchhu-ii-hydroelectric-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Punatsangchhu-II Hydroelectric Project"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Punatsangchhu-II Hydroelectric Project Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India and Bhutan recently deliberated on the commercial optimization of power output from the Punatsangchhu-II Hydroelectric Project (1020 MW) and the early commissioning of the Punatsangchhu-I Hydroelectric Project (1200 MW).<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Punatsangchhu-II Hydroelectric Project<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>1020 MW run-of-the-river<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> hydroelectric power project.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Location<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: It is located in the Wangdue Phodrang district of <\/span><b>Bhutan <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on the <\/span><b>right bank of the Punatsangchhu River.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project is being <\/span><b>developed by the Punatsangchhu II Hydroelectric Project Authority,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> under an <\/span><b>Inter-Government Agreement (IGA) between<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the Royal Government of <\/span><b>Bhutan <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the Government of <\/span><b>India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>funded by<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the Government of<\/span><b> India (GoI): 30% grant and 70% loan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at <\/span><b>10% annual interest, repayable in 30 equated semi-annual installments<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> commencing one year after the mean date of operation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the completion of the Punatsangchhu-II project, <\/span><b>Bhutan\u2019s installed power generation capacity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has <\/span><b>increased by about 40 percent<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to over 3500 MW.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project involves the construction of a 91 m-high and 223.8 m-long <\/span><b>concrete gravity dam, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">along with a diversion tunnel with a discharge capacity of 1118 cubic metres per second.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project also involves a 168.75 m-long and 22 m-high upper cofferdam and a 102.02 m-long and 13.5 m-tall downstream cofferdam.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will comprise an <\/span><b>underground powerhouse<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> equipped with six Francis turbines of 170 MW capacity each.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Key Facts about Punatsangchhu-I Hydroelectric Project<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>1.2GW run-of-the-river<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> hydroelectric power project.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Location<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: It is located in Wangdue Phodrang district of <\/span><b>Bhutan <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on the <\/span><b>left bank of Punatsangchhu River.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project is being <\/span><b>developed by<\/b> <b>Punatsangchhu I Hydroelectric Project Authority,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> an entity <\/span><b>formed under a bilateral agreement<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> signed by the <\/span><b>Bhutanese government<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>Government of India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (GoI) in July 2007.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is<\/span><b> funded by<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the Government of I<\/span><b>ndia (GoI): 40% Grant and 60% Loan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at <\/span><b>10% annual interest, repayable in 30 equated semi-annual installments<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> commencing one year after the mean date of operation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>largest hydro power projec<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">t to be <\/span><b>undertaken in Bhutan in partnership with<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the Government of <\/span><b>India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project comprises a 130m-high and 239m-long<\/span><b> concrete gravity dam.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It involves the construction of two diversion tunnels.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The facility includes an<\/span><b> underground powerhouse<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that will generate power via six 200 MW turbines.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/india-bhutan-to-strengthen-cooperation-in-power-sector\/article70589302.ece\/amp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Punatsangchhu-II Hydroelectric Project is a 1020 MW run-of-the-river hydroelectric power project located in the Wangdue Phodrang district of Bhutan. Read more about Punatsangchhu-II Hydroelectric Project, Location, River, Capacity, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":86458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,2377,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-61058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-punatsangchhu-ii-hydroelectric-project","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61058"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85973,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61058\/revisions\/85973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}