Construction of tunnel of Melamchi project delays

Chautara : Construction of the tunnel of the much-awaited Melamchi Water Supply Project has slowed down.

The construction works on the tunnel of the project have been delayed as the construction company has not been carrying out any works on some days citing lack of construction materials while on other days digging up to a metre only or from six to eight metres also on days it says it is working full-fledged, said Rajendra Panta, the Project Senior Engineer and Information Officer.

Although the project has been saying that the tunnel construction works would be completed by March 28 and water supplied to Kathmandu thereafter, works still remains to be carried out on 273 metres, including 223 metres on the Gyalthum- Sindhu section and 50 metres at the Gyalthum audit.

So far 27.227 of the total 27.5 kilometres of the tunnel from Ambathan to Sundarijal has been constructed. Ambathan of Helambu rural municipality in Sindhupalchowk district is the place from where the water from the Melamchi stream would be drawn for supplying it to Kathmandu Valley.

The project has said the construction company has been delaying the works citing lack of construction materials like cement, and also lack of fuel and money.

The Italian company, Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti – Cmc di Ravenna, is undertaking the construction works. The contract agreement worth Rs 7.72 billion was signed with this company in July 2013. The project term has been extended time time and it was extended for the last time until March this year. (RSS)