Melamchi project will be completed before mid-July: Khatri
Kathmandu, December 30
Amid uncertainty about completion of Melamchi Drinking Water Supply Project (MDWSP), the executive director of the project has claimed it will be completed by July 15.
Speaking at the Development and Technology Committee under the Federal Parliament today, Tiresh Prasad Khatri, executive director of Melamchi Water Supply Development Board, claimed that the water from Melamchi will be brought to Sundarijal by the end of June.
He said that 95.12 per cent of physical infrastructure of the project has been completed.
Khatri informed that out of 32 gates of the project, two have been installed. “We plan to instal 17 gates by mid-July,” Khatri said, adding that installation of the remaining gates could be carried out without affecting the schedule of launching the project.
On September 29, the government had awarded Chinese contractor named Sinohydro to complete the remaining works of the project by ongoing fiscal.
As per Khatri, the contractor has completed the works of standardisation of access road, construction of cofferdam at project intake area, sedimentation work, among others. “The contractor company is currently undertaking lining and support work and assembling pipelines inside the tunnel.”
Meanwhile, the parliamentary committee has directed the government to release the investigation report on the Melamchi project. It has also directed the concerned authorities to clear the dues of local contractors and vendors that had supplied building materials for the former project contractor.
Meanwhile, Asian Development Bank’s Country Director for Nepal, Mukhtor Khamudkhanov, in an interview with The Himalayan Times, has said he expects the project to be completed ‘by the end of next year’.
