Kathmandu, June 13

The Department of Roads (DoR) has planned to award the contract to construct the much-hyped 2.69-kilometre-long Nagdhunga-Naubise tunnel to a Japanese firm called Hazama Ando Corporation.

According to a senior divisional engineer at the Foreign Development Cooperation Implementation Division under the DoR, the department will soon award the contract to Hazama Ando.

“The paper work is almost over and the final documentation process is underway,” he said, seeking anonymity, adding that the department will award the contract within the ongoing fiscal year and construction will start by September.

Earlier, the government had planned to finalise the documentation process by the end of 2018, but was unable to do so due to the lengthy process of evaluating the technical and financial proposals submitted by the six shortlisted contractors. Hence, the government had to reschedule the process.

The official further said that Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the development partner of the project, has finalised the evaluation of both the technical and financial proposals that were submitted by the contractor. Likewise, the DoR has already evaluated and submitted the financial proposals by JICA.

On October 25 last year, six international construction firms had submitted their tender documents to DoR for the construction of the tunnel project. Among them, five were Chinese firms and one was a Japanese company.

The tunnel is expected to make travelling in and out of Kathmandu Valley a lot easier.

JICA will be providing loan assistance of $141.41 million to the government for the construction of the tunnel project. The estimated cost of the project hovers at around $188.19 million. The remaining cost of the project will be borne by the government.

The government has allocated Rs 6.27 billion for the project in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

As per the official, the process to acquire 431 ropanis of land for the project is underway and almost complete. DoR plans to complete the project by June 2021.