Kathmandu, July 25

The government has shortlisted Sinohydro China and a joint venture company High Himalayan Raman to complete the remaining works of Melamchi Water Supply Project, which has been stalled since the project’s Italian contractor Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti (CMC) di Ravenna quit the project in December.

The Melamchi Water Supply Development Board (MWSDB) had published a tender notice on June 31 seeking applications from interested firms to complete the water project under two packages — tunnel finishing and head works. Among the various companies that had filed their bids, the MWSDB has shortlisted the aforementioned firms, of which the lower bidder will be awarded the project contract.

“We have already analysed the technical proposal of these contractors and we will open the financial proposals of these firms on Friday. The lower bidder between these two firms is likely to win the contract for completing the remaining works of the Melamchi Water Supply Project within one week,” informed Rajendra Panta, spokesperson for MWSDB.

As per MWSDB, the new contractor will have to complete the tunnel finishing works within one year from the project award date, while it must complete the head works of the project within 15 months of the project award date.

Earlier, a Cabinet meeting in April had decided to call a new tender for completion of the remaining works of the project under two packages.

After the Italian contractor abandoned the Melamchi project, the government had formally cancelled the contract with CMC as it failed to resume works.

The project, which will deliver 170 million litres of water per day to houses located within Ring Road of Kathmandu Valley where water is in short supply, started in 2000. At that time, the project completion deadline was set for September 30, 2006. But the project could not be completed on time due to various problems.

The last time the project had faced a severe problem was in 2012 when the Chinese contractor abandoned it. But by July 2013 this problem had been resolved, as the government hired the Italian contractor to complete the remaining works. However, CMC too left the project in December last year, thereby leaving the project stalled.