Kathmandu, November 7

Melamchi Water Supply Project has completed the test operation of its Sundarijal-based water treatment plant.

According to Melamchi Water Supply Development Board, it has completed the mandatory 168-hour test operation of all the eight filters in three compartments of the plant.

Deputy Executive Director at MWSDB Ramakanta Duwadi said although the plant had the capacity of treating 85 million litres of water per day, the test was conducted using only 30 to 40 million litres water from the Bagmati River.

“The plant is now ready to treat water from the Melamchi River,” DED Duwadi said. The project had started test operation of the treatment plant during monsoon, keeping in view the availability of water. However, it had to dump the treated water back into the Bagmati River due to defect in the water supply channels.

According to the project, it had planned to distribute treated water through water supply pipelines. However, this could not be possible due to technical defects in the pipelines installed by the Project Implementation Directorate at Bhairabchaur Danda of Gokarneshwor Municipality -4. The damaged pipeline has yet to be repaired.

Due to defect in the pipeline system, the board had temporarily halted test operation of the treatment plant. The plant has the capacity of treating 85 million litres of water per day.

A joint venture of VA Tech Wabag Limited and Indian firm Pratibha Industries Limited had won the Rs 4.2 billion contract to construct the water treatment plant in 2014 and completed the treatment plant on mid-September last month.

The water treatment plant treats raw water from the Melamchi River to potable standards.