Kathmandu, February 13

The government is gearing up to issue a whitepaper on Melamchi Drinking Water Project with an aim to clarify the status of the national pride project on Thursday.

The Ministry of Drinking Water has said that a whitepaper will be issued to provide an update on all works related to the project, including the target of bringing water from Melamchi River to Sundarijal by July.

Tiresh Prasad Khatri, executive director of Melamchi Water Supply Development Board, said the whitepaper will clarify status of the project after Italy-based Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti (CMC) di Ravenna abruptly terminated the project.

Khatri had claimed around two months ago that the project would be completed by July 15. As per the latest update, 96 per cent of physical infrastructure work of the project has been completed.

On September 29, the government had awarded Chinese contractor named Sinohydro to complete the remaining works of the project by ongoing fiscal.

Talking to The Himalayan Times, Khatri informed that the Chinese contractor has completed standardisation of access road, construction of cofferdam at project intake area, sedimentation work, among others. Sinohydro is about to complete lining and support work and assembling pipelines in the tunnel.

But major works related to headworks of the tunnel and expanding water supply system in the valley remain.