The foundation stone was laid in Sundarijal, the last point of the tunnel on August 3 by PM Nepal. Although it was said that works of tunnel would be forwarded from eight places soon after the laying of the foundation, the works have not started even in Sundarijal. [break]
The locals have locked out for the past six months in Melamchi, the site office of the project, saying the foundation stone was laid in Sundarijal of Kathmandu instead of Helambu of Sindhupalchok, the entry point of the tunnel.
The locals have declared that they will not allow digging the tunnel from any of the sites of the district saying their demands were not addressed.
As the digging of tunnel has been in confusion, the China Railway 15 Bureau Corporation and China CMIIC Corporation workers have also left Sundarijal.
Although the contracting company had said it would complete the works in four years and four months, the deadline may be extended as no works have been done in six months.
The contract mentions that the tunnel would be completed and water released in Sundarijal by December, 2013.
The tunnel construction is an important work, which constitutes 27 percent of the total work.
Although construction was to start in 2002, it was postponed for five years after the donors World Bank, Norway and Sweden backtracked from the project and the works restarted with Asian Development Bank cooperation on condition to give the valley drinking water supply to the private sector.
The valley drinking water was given to Severn Trent, a British company as per the ADB condition.
When Maoists came to government, Hisila Yami who was the then minister for physical planning and works canceled the agreement with the Severn Trent and the tunnel works were delayed for another two years.
This time the foundation stone was laid on August 3, 2009, but the works could not be started because of number of disputes.
A 26.014 km tunnel is needed to bring water of the Melamchi River to Kathmandu from Helambu of Sindhupalchok to Sundarijal of Kathmandu.
The project has already constructed project access road.
The Melamchi project was started in 1998 with a view of supplying clean drinking water to increasing population of Kathmandu valley.
Admitting that the tunnel works were delayed, Executive Director Gajendra Kumar Thakur said the delay in construction was because of lengthy process of acquiring license for the explosives needed, as it needs 1,100 tonnes of explosives. Other explosives and materials are being brought from Lhasa and Hyderabad of India.
After this arrives, the tunnel works will start from eight places simultaneously, he said.
The cost of the tunnel is Rs. 4 billion and 288.8 million.
Under the project, 170 million liters of water will be collected daily in the reservoir to be built at Mahankal of Sundarijal.
The first phase total cost is 317.3 million US dollars.
The second phase will add water from Yangri and Larke Rivers and reach 350 million liters.
Of the total cost, 249.4 million will be spent in various infrastructure in Melamchi valley and in social programmes. Rs 67.9 million dollars have been allocated for drinking water alone.
The project should fulfill local demands to start the construction soon, said Chairman of the Hyolmo Sindhu Melamchi Valley Social Uplift Program Committee Chandra Bahadur Thapa.
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