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Melamchi Drinking Water Project In Limbo
By KTM Metro Reporter
September 26, 2012: the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board (MWSDB) has cancelled the construction deal on the Melamchi Drinking Water project with the Chinese contractor. The multi-billion-rupee contract has been cancelled rather than meeting the demands put forward by the Chinese contractor.
When the deal was signed in February 2009, the Chinese contractor agreed to complete the project in 2014 but later on it put forward the extension of the contract period to 2015 as one of the demands. Out of the 27 km long tunnel needed to construction for running the water from the Melamchi River to Sundarijal in Kathmandu, the contractor has done only 6.5 km. So, the project has time overrun and the cost overrun.
“We awarded the contract with certain terms of reference and a fixed amount was agreed while signing the contract, but the company time and again pressured us to increase the amount bid, something that was not possible. So we decided to terminate the contract,” said MWSDB Executive Director Krishna Acharya, writes myrepublica.com. MWSDB said the company was inefficient and the equipment it used was not of the required capacity. “We had already sent a 52-point recommendation made by engineers to increase technical manpower and buy advance equipment but it turned a deaf ear to our request. So there is no point sticking to the contract,” added Acharya.
The concept of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project was floated in 1990 at the time of the interim government headed by the then NC leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai that had boasted that he would wash the streets of Kathmandu by the Melamchi water. Unfortunately, he lost the elections held in 1990 for the parliament, and Girija Prasad Koirala took over the power as the elected leader of NC but he never did care about this project and bother to do anything. The second generation leader Sher Bahadur Deuba became prime minister in 1996 but he also never thought of doing anything about the project thus the project remained idle for so many years.
Whether the current coalition government of UCPN-Maoist and UDMF would be able to complete the project remains to be seen. The opposition coalition has been trying to dislodge the current government and grab the power but the government continues to remain in power.
