Melamchi water project to issue due payments of local vendors
Kathmandu, January 2
The Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) has decided to issue pending payments of local contractors.
A board meeting of the MWSP that was held here today decided to release outstanding payments of local suppliers owed by the project’s previous contractor Co-operativa Muratori e Cementisti (CMC) di Ravenna.
Local suppliers and vendors have been saying that the previous contractor of the project is yet to clear almost Rs 160 million dues and thus these vendors have been halting the project development time and again seeking clearance of their dues.
The Italian contractor of the project CMC had left the water project in December 2018 just before the project was nearing completion. CMC, which had terminated its contract with the water project citing the company’s bankruptcy, had not issued payments of almost 15 days to workers and also payments worth millions to local vendors.
“The board has decided to issue outstanding dues of workers and local vendors of the water project to ensure timely completion of the project. We will gradually release payments of all workers and vendors,” informed Rajendra Panta, spokesperson for the MWSP board.
The Melamchi Water Supply Project, which remained stalled for more than a year has gained momentum lately with the government awarding a Chinese firm the responsibility to complete the remaining works of the project. On September 29, the government had awarded Chinese contractor Sinohydro the contract to complete the remaining works of the project.
The government has asked Sinohydro to complete the project within October this year.
Though almost 95 per cent of physical works of Melamchi water project has been completed, a few works related to headworks, installing gates, tunnel finishing, diversion tunnel, lining of audit tunnel and finishing touches of the tunnel are pending.
Tiresh Prasad Khatri, executive director of MWSP board, informed that the Chinese contractor has already completed the works of standardisation of access road, construction of cofferdam at project intake area and sedimentation work, among others, and is currently undertaking lining and support work and assembling pipelines inside the tunnel.
In a bid to encourage the contractor to complete the project on time, the government has also announced an incentive for the contractor. Under the scheme, if the contractor is able to complete the project before the deadline, then government will provide it a bonus of Rs 1.27 million per day for each day before the deadline.
