An unidentified group detonated three improvised explosive devices at the powerhouse of the under construction Arun III Hydropower Project at Chichila Rural Municipality-3 in Sankhuwasabha district on Thursday night.

The explosions damaged a tunnel drilling rig and a generator.

Police Inspector Rameshwor Pandit said the IEDs were set off at the powerhouse, which is located just 150 meters away from the hydropower office in Pukhuwa village.

Chief District Officer Ganesh Bahadur Adhikari and DSP Shyam Saru Magar of the District Police Office reached the incident site to take stock of the damage on Friday. Following the incident, security personnel from Nepal Police and Nepal Army have been mobilised at the project site.

Inspector Pandit said police were searching for the group responsible for the blasts. No arrests had been made as of late Friday afternoon.

India’s SJVN Arun III Power Development Company is building the 900 MW run-of-the-river type project on the Arun river in Sankhuwasabha.

More than 2,400 workers are working at the construction site. Among them, 1,700 are Nepali workers and technicians. SJVN is constructing the tunnel and powerhouse of the project simultaneously.

Investment Board Nepal and SJVN, an Indian government-owned entity, had signed an agreement for the development of the Arun-III project in November 2014.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had jointly laid the foundation stone for the project in May 2018.