The Melamchi Water Supply Project has held consultation with the donor agency Asian Development Bank (ADB) to expedite the works relating to the project.

Spokesperson of MWSP Rajendra Prasad Panta told Rastriya Samachar Samiti that Melamchi Development Committee was preparing to scrap the contract with the construction company building the tunnel for the Project and it recommended entrusting the responsibilities to carry on the Project’s remaining work to the subsidiary construction companies as it would take a while to call for tender.

Of the tunnel measuring 27.5 kilometres from Ambathan of Sindhupalchok to Sundarjal of Kathmandu, finishing works were yet to be performed on the 410 metres of the tunnel, shared Panta. Similarly, 885 metres of tunnel await reinforced cement concrete (RCC) works and two of three ventilators are yet to be rebuilt. Ventilation has been made in the tunnel stretching from Gyalthum to Ambathan while drilling needs to be done for ventilation from tunnel spanning Sundarijal to Sindhu and Sindhu to Gyalthum.

Installation of big galvanized iron (GI) pipes to bring water from the outlet of the tunnel at Sundarijal to water processing centre is also left to be carried out.

A regular monitoring system has to be put in place. Further consultations would be held with the stakeholders to further works.

The Project would wait for 14 days for a response to the letter from the Italian construction company Co-operativa Muratori e Cementisti (CMC) di Ravenna for scrapping the contract. Work relating to the Project would be forwarded from February 2, according to the Committee.