Kathmandu, Oct. 27 -- megawatt Budhigandaki Hydropower Project is once again facing uncertainty over how it will be built, as shifting government policies threaten to complicate a financing and implementation framework that had already been approved.

At its October 16 meeting, the Cabinet gave in-principle approval to draft the Budhigandaki Development Authority Bill, reopening the debate over the project's development model.

In the budget for the current fiscal year, presented to Parliament on May 29, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle announced that the project would be developed through an empowered authority. In the previous fiscal year's budget, then finance minister Bishnu Paudel had proposed a public-private partnership (PPP) model. ...