Sundarijal,
Kathmandu, Dec. 28:
A
major breakthrough has been achieved at the key section of the Melamchi Water
Supply Project’s Sundarijal-Sindhu tunnel, the longest tunnel of the
much-awaited project.
Engineers
and technicians at the project site conducted the last blast Wednesday
afternoon to connect the 5.8-km tunnel being constructed from the Sundarijal
side with that on the Sindhu side, which is 3.2 km.
The
tunnel is 3.9 metres high and 3.5 metres wide.
Now
only a 5.5-km-long tunnel needs to be built to bring water from the Melamchi
River in Sindhupalchowk district to Sundarijal of Kathmandu through a 27.5-km-long
waterway.
 |
| Tunnel of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project. |
The
actual length of the tunnel is 26.5 km. The 300-m and 700-metre-long audit
tunnels at Gyalthum and Sindhu respectively are also included in the project.
According
to the project management, the debris generated by the blast will be taken out
of the tunnel within a day, and preparations will be made for further
development of the tunnel.
According
to Rajan Pudasainee, a geologist deployed at the site, a 3-centimetre-thick
circuit would be set in the tunnel walls and ceiling and a 10-cm-thick RCC
would be constructed on the floor before allowing the water to flow into it.
The
tunnel will carry 170 million litres of water per day from the Melamchi River
to the Kathmandu Valley by next year, and another 340 million litres of water
from the Yangri and Larke Rivers will be available by 2021.
“We
are literally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. We have been committed to
this crucial project through thick and thin and are glad that water will soon
start flowing,” said Kenichi Yokoyama, country director of the Asian Development
Bank for Nepal.
The
ADB has provided a total of US$ 145 million in loans for the $355.4 million
Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP), a national pride project.
It has
been working with the government since 2000 to build the tunnel and 29 km of
the access road, and with the Japan International Cooperation Agency to
construct a water treatment plant at Sundarijal.
Executive
director of the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board Ghana Shyam Bhattarai
said that Wednesday's work was a milestone towards completing the construction
of one of the longest water diversion tunnels.
 |
| Engineers, government officers and journalists ready to enter in to the tunnel. |
According
to the government, the project would be completed in the next 6 to 8 months.
However,
at present the project is drilling about 19 metres a day, which is less than
its earlier progress of about 24-26 metres a day.
Engineers
at the site said that work had been slowed because the machinery and equipment
were old, and there were breakdowns during work.
Therefore,
rough estimates show that it might be difficult to complete the project within
the stipulated time.
A
couple of months ago, the Development Committee of the Legislature-Parliament
had directed the government to complete the MWSP and distribute water from the
Melamchi River in Kathmandu by October 2017.
The
project has been delayed by a decade, and its deadline was extended twice.
According to the second revised date, it was to be
completed by September this year.
Prime
Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, during an on-site inspection of the project in
Sindhupalchowk in September, had directed the authorities to complete the
project before the new deadline.
Acording
to Bhattarai, construction of a 20-km access road, 21-km audit access road and
6 site offices had been completed, and progress in the construction of the
water treatment plant was 96 per cent.
(Published in The Rising Nepal of December 29, 2016)
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