Estimated cost of Rs 7 billion

The Melamchi Water Supply Development Committee announced a tender on Wednesday to build another water treatment plant in Sundarijal to distribute an additional 255 million liters of water in the Kathmandu Valley. Companies interested in constructing the treatment plant have been given 45 days to submit their applications. A technical evaluation of the tender will take place after two months.

The treatment plant is being built with loan assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). After the technical evaluation, approval must be obtained from the ADB. Committee officials have stated that the financial proposals will be opened after receiving the ADB’s approval.

After the technical evaluation, the financial proposal will proceed with a 15-day deadline. The contract agreement process will move forward only after receiving ADB's approval on the financial proposal.

Rajendra Prasad Pant, Senior Divisional Engineer of the committee, confirmed that the contract for the treatment plant is expected to be finalized within six months. The construction of the plant is projected to take three years, with the awarded company responsible for designing the project. The design phase will take at least three months.

The construction of the treatment plant is estimated to cost around Rs 7 billion.

Currently, 170 million liters of Melamchi water is being distributed in the Kathmandu Valley. Although the treatment plant has the capacity to distribute 510 million liters of water, only one-third of that amount is being distributed due to the plant's limited capacity.