Budhigandaki Stalled: A Governance Failure, Not an Engineering One

Despite decades of political attention, the Budhigandaki Hydropower Project remains unimplemented. The core issue is not design or resource uncertainty, but governance fragmentation and weak execution systems. Repeated leadership changes and politicized institutional dynamics have undermined continuity, while compensation and resettlement challenges remain unresolved. Lessons from global projects such as Rogun Dam of Tajikistanand Nam Theun 2 of Laoshighlight a consistent truth: financing and construction follow governance credibility, not the other way around.