Kathmandu, May 8

The government is preparing to test the water supply distribution network of the Melamchi project with water from the Bagmati River from August this year.

According to Project Implementation Directorate of Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited, keeping in view the need of a huge volume of water for testing and cleaning the pipelines, KUKL has decided that monsoon will be the best period to use the overflow of water of the Bagmati River.

Anil Bhadra Khanal, deputy project director at PID said installation of bulk distribution system and distribution network system both will be completed before August this year.

“By August, installation of the distribution network will be completed, then we will test and clean the entire system with the help of overflow of the Bagmati during the monsoon.” He told The Himalayan Times, “As adequate water will not be available for testing the huge distribution system, the monsoon will be the best season for this.”

He said, out of 51 km, 47 km of the bulk distribution network had been completed. Similarly, out of 670 km, 570 km distribution network system had been installed so far.

Though the distribution system will be completed and tested on time before water from the Melamchi project enters Kathmandu Valley, the project is unlikely to meet the target due to the snail-paced tunnel excavation at the Melamchi project site.

Although the government is applying every possible measure to speed up tunnel excavation of the Melamchi Water Supply Project in order to meet the deadline of supplying water to Kathmandu Valley by October 2017, it has failed to speed up tunnel excavation so far.

According to the Melamchi Water Supply Project, daily rate of tunnel excavation is around 15 to 20 metres these days due to weak rock sections.

It is said that the remaining three km tunnel excavation may take more than four months and that may push the deadline by up to five months more.

According to the project, though the pace of tunnel construction is yet to be accelerated, the contractor has imported advanced machines to speed up the pace of tunnel excavation with additional financial support of 3 million USD from the government.

The contracting company CMC Cooperative Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna had asked the government to provide additional funds to make sure that the project was completed on time.

The project said the government had provided additional support after the contractor said they were unlikely to complete tunnel excavation on time without using new technology. On the demand of the contractor, the government has provided an additional USD 3 million for tunnel excavation work of the Melamchi Water Supply Project.

In February, CMC Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna, the contractor for the project, had demanded additional financial support for use of new technology to complete tunnel excavation work by July. It had blamed weak rock formation for delay in tunnel excavation work.

With the third deadline fast approaching, MWSDB is struggling to complete its task on time by using the most effective technology. The third deadline for completion of the project is expiring on October 2017. However, given the pace of work, the project is likely to miss this deadline too.