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Never Started Off Melamchi Tunnel Construction
By KTM Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
On January 26, 2010, the state-run newspaper called ‘Gorkhapatra’ has reported that the construction of a tunnel to bring water from the Melamchi River to the Kathmandu Valley has never started off. On August 3, 2009, Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has laid a foundation stone with a fanfare but the construction of a tunnel has not started off, yet. Immediately after the laying of a foundation stone, construction of a tunnel is supposed to start off at eight different places but the government has not started even at the place where the Prime Minister has laid a foundation stone.
The length of the tunnel is 26.014 km. The tunnel carries water from the Melamchi River to Sundarijal in the Kathmandu Valley and then the water goes to distribution in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur thus relieving the acute shortage of drinking water in the Kathmandu Valley. Currently, citizens of the Kathmandu Valley get water once every four days because of the acute shortage of water.
However, Prime Minister Madhav Nepal and his Deputy Prime holding the portfolio of Physical Planning and Work Bijya Gacchedar have never been serious about building such a national important project that gives direct benefits to the people. So, Prime Minister Madhav Nepal goes on laying foundation stones but nothing happens in the field. The fate of the ‘Fast Track’ connecting Kathmandu with Hetauda is not much different from the Melamchi tunnel. Members of the current cabinet hardly work on the project that does not fetch them under-the-table payments. So, construction of most of the development projects has been frozen.
The then Interim Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai had said that he would bring water from the Melamchi River and wash the streets of Kathmandu in 1990 but he could not even lay a foundation stone. Then, Girija Prasad Koirala took over the position of Prime Minister several times during the last fifteen years of the administration of the Nepali Congress (NC) had never thought about the Melamchi water, as he had been only after the projects from which he could extract direct and indirect benefits to his family members and relatives. These corrupt politicians have never been for meeting the need of the Kathmandu Valley people for water.
