Saying they cannot build the tunnel by the existing deadline of September 2013, the contractors have requested the Melamchi Drinking Water Development Committee (MDWDC) for extending the deadline till September 2015. [break]
Two Chinese companies, China Railway 15 Bureau Group and China CMIIC Engineering, were awarded the contract to construct the 26.5-km diversion tunnel for channeling water from Melamchi River in Sindhupalchowk district to reservoirs in Sundarijal, Kathmandu.
The contract was signed on February 19, 2009 setting a completion deadline of 2013.
The MDWDC said contractors have requested deadline extension through Proxy Infra AG, consultant for tunnel supervision, as, going by international practice, contractors directly do not make such requests.
“The contractors are insisting to extend the deadline for another two years but we have not yet agreed,” Deputy Executive Director of MDWDC Purnaraj Shrestha said.
The tunnel construction is a key part of the project, constituting 27 percent of the total work.
In 27 months since the tunnel construction contract was signed, only seven percent work has been completed. Only two kilometers of the tunnel has been constructed so far.
Before this, the contractors had requested a one-year deadline extension barely a few months after the contract was signed, said Krishna Prasad Acharya, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works.
“We asked them to expedite the work. Right now, we are thinking of extending the deadline for six months,” Acharya added.
He blamed disruption at the construction site by locals as the chief reason for the delay in completion of the tunnel.
The construction of the tunnel has been disrupted three times since the project work started on August 3, 2009.
The Melamchi Drinking Water project aims at bringing 170 million liters of water to the Kathmandu Valley every day.
The government of Nepal has contributed 20 per cent and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided 80 percent loan assistance for the tunnel´s construction.
Though the project´s construction was to start in 2002 and complete by 2007, the construction was postponed for five years after World Bank, Norway and Sweden backtracked from the project. Work restarted under Asian Development Bank´s cooperation under the condition that management of the Valley´s drinking water supply would be entrusted to the private sector.
The cancellation by Maoist-led government of a management agreement with UK-based Severn Trent Water had delayed the tunnel work for two years.
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