Trishuli Cascade
- Page status
- Working page
- Updated
- 2026-05-13
Summary
Trishuli Cascade is a corridor overview page for operating, under-construction, and survey-stage hydropower projects along the Trishuli River.
The Trishuli River is Nepal's most heavily developed hydropower corridor, benefiting from proximity to Kathmandu's load center and well-established transmission infrastructure. Starting from the original 1967 Trishuli plant, the corridor has accumulated layers of development across different licensing eras, sponsors, and ownership models (NEA-owned, subsidiary, and private IPP).
Plants in the Cascade
| Plant | Capacity (MW) | Status | Ownership |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Trishuli-I Cascade HEP | 24.6 | Survey | — |
| Upper Trishuli-1 | 216 | Under construction | IPP |
| Upper Trishuli 3A | 60 | Under construction | NEA |
| Upper Trishuli 3B | 37 | Under construction | Subsidiary (Trishuli Jal Vidyut Co.) |
| Trishuli Galchhi | 75 | Under construction | IPP |
| Super Trishuli | 100 | Under construction | IPP |
| Trishuli (Devighat) | 24 | Operating | NEA |
| Trishuli Khola | 4.4 | Survey | — |
| Total | ~540.6 |
Corridor Significance
The Trishuli-Gandaki corridor is the backbone of central Nepal's generation. Projects in this corridor supply directly to Kathmandu's load center via the shortest transmission paths in the country. The corridor road (Pasang Lhamu Highway / Prithvi Highway) provides construction access, and the established Marsyangdi Corridor Manang-Khudi-Udipur 220 kV and Trishuli Galchhi transmission infrastructure provides evacuation.
A persistent analytical challenge: Upper Trishuli 3B (37 MW, subsidiary) is frequently conflated with Upper Trishuli 3A (60 MW, NEA-owned) — they are separate assets with different promoters and PPAs on adjacent reaches of the Trishuli.
Concentration Risk
The corridor's density concentrates systemic risk: geological events, sediment surges, or flow alterations from upstream projects cascade through the entire system. The September 2024 floods demonstrated how a single extreme event can affect multiple plants simultaneously.
The 26 August 2026 Bhote Koshi avalanche flood proved the point at corridor scale: roughly 430 MW across 14–15 projects was knocked out in one morning, from Rasuwagadhi (destroyed) and Chilime (buried) down through the Upper Trishuli 3A/3B sites, Trishuli and Devighat plants, to the Bidur solar substation — with bodies recovered roughly 250 km downstream on the Narayani. A single corridor event removed over 12 percent of national installed capacity. See Bhotekoshi–Trishuli Flood 2026, Kathmandu Post — Flood damage to Nepal's hydropower sector could run into billions (2026) and Kathmandu Post / NDRRMA — Death toll from Bhotekoshi flood reaches 734 (2026).
Related Corridors
The Trishuli River is a tributary of the Narayani/Gandaki system (see Gandaki Basin). The adjacent Bhote Koshi corridor (Rasuwagadhi, Madhya Bhotekoshi, Upper Bhotekoshi) shares transmission infrastructure and Chilime-group sponsorship patterns with several Trishuli projects via the Chilime-Trishuli 220 kV Transmission Line.
Limitations & Controversies
The cascade table combines projects at different evidence levels and status stages, so it should be treated as a corridor orientation page rather than a reconciled hydrology, licensing, or cumulative-impact assessment.
Sources
- NEA Annual Report FY 2024/25
- Kathmandu Post — Flood damage to Nepal's hydropower sector could run into billions (2026)
- Kathmandu Post / NDRRMA — Death toll from Bhotekoshi flood reaches 734 (2026)