Kathmandu, Jan. 28
More
than seven months after the intake of the Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) was
buried by debris brought by massive floods in the Melamchi River in
Sindhupalchowk on 15 June 2021, works have begun to clear them.
Chinese
contractor Sino Hydro has recently moved heavy equipment to the site and begun preparations
to remove the debris from Friday, said Bashu Dev Paudyal, Executive Director of
the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board.
According
to him, the work will be executed in a way so that the water from the Melamchi
River can be brought to the Kathmandu Valley by the Nepali New Year 2079, on 14
April 2022.
"In
the first phase, the debris obstructing the water from channellising into the
tunnel connecting the river and reservoir in Sundarijal of Kathmandu will be
removed so that the water could be brought to the valley temporarily,"
said Paudyal, who returned from the site on Friday after making an observation
of the preparation made by the contractor.
A
temporary access road to the MWSP's head works was recently opened. The road
was severely damaged by the torrential rains and subsequent landslides in
monsoon last year. As the landslides jeopardised the human settlement above the
road, the infrastructure could not be repaired or developed until the monsoon
ceased.
The
board has extended the deadline to complete the construction of the head works
by mid-July this year as per the decision of a Cabinet meeting a couple of
weeks ago, and directed the Sino Hydro to reach the site. The cost of the
contract has also gone up by Rs. 320 million with the time overrun.
The
cost variation is made for the contractor to clear the debris deposited at the
head works.
Earlier
in October 2019, the board had signed a contract with Sino Hydro with a mandate
to complete the construction of head works in 15 months.
Paudyal
said that the actual cost of the project could be calculated after clearing the
debris as it is not known whether the head works constructed before the floods
is intact.
According
to the primary estimates made in August last year, the floods caused damages of
about Rs. 2 billion to the project and the head works was buried about 15-20
metres down the debris.
The
contractor had completed the construction of civil works of the head works,
leaving only a small amount of hydro-mechanical and electrical works to
complete.
The
project had started distributing the water from the Melamchi River by the end
of March 2021 while President Bidya Devi Bhandari had inaugurated the water
distribution on April 2 last year.
The
Rs. 36 billion project was conceptualised about five decades ago has completed
about two decades after its commencement with multiple deadline extensions and
cost overrun.
In the first phase, the national pride project will
distribute 170 million litres of water a day – half of the total water that is
being brought to the Kathmandu Valley from the Melamchi River in Sindhupalchok
district via a 26.5 kilometre tunnel.
Another 340 million litres water would be brought to
the valley from the Yangri and Larke rivers in Sindhupalchok through the same
tunnel.
According to the board, water from the Yangri and
Larke rivers could be brought to the valley within the next four years. The
Yangri river is 9 km away from Melamchi head works and Larke is further 2
kilometres away from Yangri.
A 9-km-long tunnel will be built up to Yangri while
the tunnel to Larke will have two parts, one for water and another for
vehicular movement.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 29 January 2021.
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