Kathmandu, November 12 Melamchi Water Supply Project has completed the mandatory 168-hour water disinfection test at Sundarijal-based water treatment plant. MWSP had imported chlorine gas from India two weeks ago for the purpose. Deputy Executive Director at Melamchi Water Supply Development Board Ramakanta Duwadi said with the completion of wastewater disinfection process, all tests required for full-fledged operation of the treatment plant had been completed. “As part of the process, 25 to 30 million litres of water was purified using chlorine gas per day. So the treatment plant is now ready for disinfecting water from the Melamchi River anytime the project starts operation,” DED Duwadi told The Himalayan Times, adding, “After completing disinfection test yesterday, Japanese consultant NJS has begun the process of handing over the plant to MWSP.” It is said that chlorine is a highly efficient disinfectant and is added to public water supplies to kill disease-causing pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoans that commonly grow in water supply reservoirs, on the walls of water mains and in storage tanks. Two weeks ago, the functionality test of the treatment plant was completed using water from the Bagmati River. The project had started test operation of the treatment plant during monsoon, keeping in view the availability of water. However, it had to dump the treated water back into the Bagmati River due to defect in the water supply channels. According to the project, it had planned to distribute treated water through water supply pipelines. However, this could not be possible due to technical defects in the pipelines installed by the Project Implementation Directorate at Bhairabchaur Danda of Gokarneshwor Municipality -4. The damaged pipeline has yet to be repaired. Due to defect in the pipeline system, the board had temporarily halted test operation of the treatment plant. The plant has the capacity of treating 85 million litres of water per day. The water treatment plant will treat water to potable standards. Upstream of the treatment plant is the  Melamchi Diversion Scheme and downstream of the WTP is the Bulk  Distribution system. A joint venture of VA Tech Wabag Limited and Indian firm Pratibha Industries Limited had won the Rs 4.2 billion contract to construct the water treatment plant in 2014 and completed the treatment plant on mid September this year.