Hydropower in Nepal by Province and District

Nepal's electricity almost entirely comes from water falling off the Himalaya, so its hydropower map is lopsided by geography. Fast-dropping rivers in the northern hill and mountain districts host nearly every plant, while the flat Terai (Madhesh Province) has essentially none. This page aggregates Amarnepal's hydropower database geographically: for each province and key district it sums installed and pipeline megawatts (MW), counts plants, names the largest project and lists the river basins involved. The underlying per-plant records already carry a province and district field; here those fields are rolled up so that location-based questions — such as 'hydropower in Karnali Province' or 'hydropower projects in Sindhupalchok' — can be answered at a glance.

As of mid-2026, the database catalogues about 137 major projects: roughly 75 operational plants totalling around 2,843 MW, 31 under construction totalling around 3,563 MW, and 31 proposed or under-development schemes totalling roughly 35,170 MW (a figure dominated by a few giant shared reservoir projects that are largely aspirational). For national context, the Department of Electricity Development (DoED) and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) reported about 3,256 MW of installed hydropower — around 3,420 MW across all sources — as of early 2025, spread over roughly 175 licensed plants. Nepal's economically feasible potential is commonly cited at about 42,000–43,000 MW, out of a theoretical ~83,000 MW.

Because this inventory focuses on larger schemes (broadly 10 MW and above, plus a few historic small plants), the province and district totals below should be read as 'where Nepal's big hydropower sits', not a legal census of every micro-hydro unit. Even so, the pattern is clear and durable: Bagmati Province dominates operating capacity, Gandaki is a strong second, Koshi has a modest operating base but an enormous pipeline, and the far-western provinces carry the country's largest untapped storage projects.

Bagmati Province is the centre of gravity of Nepali hydropower, holding about 1,470 MW of the country's major operating capacity across 31 catalogued plants — more than half of the operational total tracked here. Its dominance rests on the Tamakoshi and Bhote Koshi corridors in the Koshi basin, plus the historic Trishuli and Kulekhani schemes. The 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi in Dolakha, commissioned in 2021, is Nepal's single largest power plant and alone accounts for nearly a third of the province's operating capacity. Bagmati also hosts Kulekhani I (60 MW), Nepal's only true reservoir (storage) plant, in Makwanpur.

The province's plants cluster tightly in a few districts. Dolakha leads with about 562 MW operating across five plants (Upper Tamakoshi, Khimti I and others), the largest district total in the country. Sindhupalchok and Rasuwa anchor the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli corridors respectively, and Ramechhap carries the dense Likhu Khola cluster. Because Bagmati straddles three basins — Koshi, Gandaki and the small Bagmati basin — its rivers feed both the eastern and central grids.

Bagmati's pipeline is substantial too: about 719 MW is under construction, led by the 216 MW Upper Trishuli-1 in Rasuwa and the 100 MW Super Trishuli in Nuwakot, while proposed storage schemes such as the 1,110 MW Sunkoshi-2 would add reservoir capacity the province currently lacks beyond Kulekhani.

Gandaki Province is Nepal's second hydropower hub, with about 816 MW operating across 24 major plants — every one of them in the Gandaki basin, which drains the Annapurna and Manaslu massifs. The flagship is Kaligandaki A (144 MW) at Mirmi in Syangja, Nepal's second-largest operating station, complemented by the Marsyangdi cascade (the 69 MW Marsyangdi, 70 MW Middle Marsyangdi and 50 MW Upper Marsyangdi A) and a dense run of private plants on the Dordi, Madi, Modi and Nilgiri rivers.

The plants spread across more districts than in Bagmati. Lamjung leads on operating capacity (~268 MW across seven plants on the Marsyangdi and Dordi), followed by Kaski, Myagdi, Parbat and Syangja. Myagdi is the province's construction hotspot: while it has about 127 MW operating, it carries roughly 542 MW under construction across eight projects, headlined by the 180 MW Kaligandaki Gorge scheme.

Gandaki's under-construction total (~874 MW) actually edges out its operating base, and its proposed schemes are large — including the 828 MW Uttarganga storage project and the 140 MW Tanahu reservoir plant on the Seti. With the Kali Gandaki, Marsyangdi, Seti and Budhi Gandaki all rising here, the province is central to Nepal's push for peaking and storage capacity.

Koshi Province (Nepal's easternmost province) illustrates why it is important to separate the Koshi river basin from Koshi Province. The 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi sits on a Koshi-basin river but lies inside Bagmati Province, so it does not count toward Koshi Province's total. Within the province itself, operating capacity is a comparatively modest ~394 MW across 13 major plants, and the biggest operating plant is the 86 MW Solu Khola (Dudhkoshi) in Solukhumbu — which at commissioning was the largest project ever built by Nepal's private sector.

What sets Koshi Province apart is its pipeline. About 1,817 MW is under construction — the largest of any province — led by the 900 MW Arun-3 in Sankhuwasabha (built by India's SJVN, over 70 percent complete by late 2025) and the 285 MW Upper Tamor in Taplejung. When Arun-3 commissions, it will instantly become the biggest hydropower plant in Koshi Province and in the country. Taplejung alone carries roughly 712 MW under construction across seven projects on the Tamor.

The proposed tier is larger still, at nearly 6,000 MW, dominated by long-discussed mega-schemes such as the 2,300 MW Saptakoshi High Dam. These remain decades-long aspirations rather than firm projects, but they explain why the Arun, Tamor and Dudh Koshi valleys are the frontier of Nepal's hydropower ambitions.

The western provinces are capacity-poor today but hold Nepal's largest untapped reservoir potential. Karnali Province has no large operational hydropower plant in this inventory; its first big scheme, the 106 MW Jagdulla in Dolpa, is under construction. Yet Karnali carries the heaviest proposed pipeline of any province — roughly 5,000 MW in its own name plus shares of border megaprojects — including the 1,902 MW Mugu Karnali and 900 MW Upper Karnali storage schemes. The 10,800 MW Karnali Chisapani multipurpose project, straddling Karnali, Lumbini and Sudurpashchim, is the single largest figure in the database, though it remains a long-term aspiration.

Sudurpashchim Province (the far west) has about 135 MW operating across five plants, all on the Mahakali basin's tributaries — the Chameliya, Kalanga Gad and Sani Gad in Darchula and Bajhang. The 40 MW Upper Chameliya is its largest operating plant. The province's future, however, is defined by the 6,480 MW Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project on the Mahakali, a bi-national reservoir scheme to be shared equally with India and one of the largest hydropower proposals in South Asia.

Lumbini Province is a modest but historic contributor. Its operating plants are the 15 MW Gandak station on the Narayani (a 1970s India-built scheme in Nawalparasi) and the pioneering ~12 MW Jhimruk in Pyuthan, together about 27 MW. The 46.8 MW Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project in Surkhet, which transfers Bheri water into the Babai for irrigation and power, is under construction, and the 245 MW Naumure project is proposed.

Rolling the data down to district level shows just how concentrated Nepal's generation is. A handful of hill districts host most of the operating fleet, generally where a major river drops steeply through a narrow valley. Dolakha (Bagmati) tops the operational ranking at about 562 MW, driven by Upper Tamakoshi; Lamjung (Gandaki) and Ramechhap (Bagmati) follow on the strength of the Marsyangdi and Likhu clusters, and Sindhupalchok, Rasuwa and Solukhumbu round out the leaders.

Sindhupalchok, in Bagmati Province, is one of the most searched hydropower districts — and for good reason. It anchors the Bhote Koshi corridor with about 223 MW operating across six major plants: the 102 MW Madhya Bhotekoshi (which reached commercial operation in October 2025 after a decade and a half of delays), the 45 MW Upper Bhote Koshi (Nepal's first foreign-funded private plant, from 2001), the 36 MW Upper Balephi A, the 22.2 MW Upper Chaku A, the 10 MW Sun Koshi and the 7.5 MW Indrawati III. Every one lies in the Koshi basin, making the district a compact showcase of Nepal's IPP-led boom.

For under-construction activity, Taplejung (Koshi, ~712 MW on the Tamor) and Myagdi (Gandaki, ~542 MW on the Kali Gandaki tributaries) are the busiest districts, each hosting large clusters that will reshape their provincial totals once commissioned. These district rollups cross-reference the site's province and district pages, so a reader can move from a plant to its district to its province and back.

Two distinctions matter when reading geographic hydropower data. First, a river basin is not a province. The Koshi basin, for example, drains parts of Koshi Province, Bagmati Province and even Gandaki-adjacent areas, so a 'Koshi' plant may sit in Bagmati Province. Where this page reports a province total, it uses each plant's administrative province — the district and province it physically occupies — not the basin name. This is why Upper Tamakoshi (Koshi basin) counts toward Bagmati Province.

Second, this inventory is a curated database of major plants, not the official national register. NEA and DoED track around 175 licensed operating plants totalling roughly 3,256 MW, many of them small run-of-river units below 10 MW that are not individually listed here. As a result, the operating total in this rollup (~2,843 MW) is deliberately lower than the official installed figure. Treat the province and district sums as robust rankings of Nepal's significant hydropower, and cross-check exact national capacity against the DoED and NEA year-books.

Finally, the pipeline figures move fast. Under-construction projects such as Arun-3, Upper Tamor and the Myagdi cluster are commissioning through the late 2020s, and 'proposed' storage megaprojects (Pancheshwar, Karnali Chisapani, Saptakoshi, Budhi Gandaki) have been discussed for years without firm financing. The operational rankings are durable; the pipeline totals are indicative and should be read with their status in mind.