Kathmandu, September 5

The completion date of the much-hyped national pride project, Melamchi Drinking Water Project (MDWP), has been postponed to the end of this December. The reason behind it is due to delay in tunnel digging process. Out of a total 27.5-km tunnel, the project still has to dig 1.8 km.

“As per the daily speed of tunnel digging, it will take a few more weeks,” said Minister for Water Supply and Sanitation Mahendra Yadav. “CMC di Revenna, the contractor, has made a commitment to complete the project by December and we hope we will be able to supply water in the Valley within this deadline.”

Earlier, a deadline had been set to complete project by September, which has now been pushed back by another two months. “It is a highly technical issue but we had put pressure on the contractor to complete the project within the earlier deadline,” informed Minister Yadav. “However, due to multiple issues that cropped up we will not be able to complete the project by September.”

A few days back tunnel digging process was halted as contractor failed to pay equipment suppliers and local contractors. The issue had to be settled by the Ministry of Water Supply and Sanitation and Melamchi Water Project Development Board (MWPDB).

Minister Yadav also informed that the project is planning to test distribution system in the next few weeks. According to him, MDWP is planning to use water from the Bagmati river to test the drinking water distribution system installed by MWPDB.

The government plans to supply 170 million litres of water daily to Kathmandu Valley from Melamchi river in the first phase. After completion of the first phase, the Yangri and Larke rivers will also be diverted to Melamchi to bring additional 340 million litres of water a day.

The initial deadline to complete the project was September 2016 but due to the earthquake of April 25, 2015 and fuel shortage, deadline was extended to March, 2018. After negotiations with government, CMC di Revenna had revised target to this September.