14 hydropower projects hit and the whole border road destroyed

Nepal Disaster Update LivePublished 27 August 2026, 9:30 am NPTSuperseded by a later briefing

The Nepal Electricity Authority reports 14 hydropower projects damaged with a combined capacity of about 748 megawatts: nine operating plants totalling 354 MW and five under construction totalling 394 MW.

Named projects include Rasuwagadhi, Chilime, Sanjen Khola, Upper Trishuli-1, Trishuli and Devighat, along with a 220 kV substation. Twelve staff of the Upper Trishuli-3B project are reported out of contact.

An earlier estimate the same day, from the Ministry of Energy, put the loss at 431 MW. Both figures were published on 27 August, which is a fair measure of how provisional every damage number is right now.

The Department of Roads confirms the entire 42 km road from Betrawati in Nuwakot to the Rasuwagadhi border crossing has been destroyed at multiple points, including several concrete bridges. A further 16 km stretch nearer the border, recently upgraded with Chinese government financing, was also swept away.

That road is Nepal's main overland trade and pilgrimage route to Tibet, and it is also the road rescue teams need. Much of the response has had to go by helicopter instead.

Nine commercial bank branches were swept away with 26 staff unaccounted for, and the Rasuwa customs office at Timure lost contact with 15 employees.

No government or humanitarian body has yet published a figure for how many people have been displaced. UN OCHA names that as the priority information gap for the coming days.

Sources for this briefing

• UN OCHA / ReliefWeb
• The Kathmandu Post
• Onlinekhabar

Written and checked by hand against the sources above. Figures are attributed to the bulletin they came from; where two sources disagreed, the lower confirmed figure was used. If something here is wrong, tell us and it gets corrected or removed.