Melamchi Water in Kathmandu
Melamchi Water in Kathmandu
KTM Metro Reporter
July 25, 2017
Kathmandu: Out of 27.5 km long tunnel, only 2.3 km is left to dig for bringing water from the Melamchi River to the Kathmandu Valley for providing water to the thirsty citizens. However, the tunnel diggers have encountered soft rocks that require careful handling. So, the progress in tunneling has been only about 17 meters a day indicating the water from the Melamchi River would not flow to Kathmandu as schedule in October or November this year. It might take another six months more than the schedule, the news in “gorkhapatra” in its ‘artha bazaar’ section stated today.
However, the concerned agency has not said anything publicly about the possible delay in delivering 170 million water daily from the Melamchi River. If we were to believe the news in “gorkhapatra,” encounter of the soft rock is unanticipated means the project management has either neglected the geological conditions or it has not done proper geological survey otherwise the project management and the contractor would have taken appropriate measures to deal with the soft rocks in time.
Anything could be possible because it is Nepal where cost overrun and time overrun of such large projects have been the regular practices rather than an exceptional case. Common folks have no choice but live happily in any possible eventualities.