Kathmandu, November 19 :Melamchi Drinking Water Development Project has completed 64 per cent works on installing pipeline to supply water from the Melamchi River of Sindhupalchowk. The project has expedited overall construction work and installation of distribution channel aiming to distribute water to denizens of Kathmandu Valley by October 2017.
According to the Project Implementation Directorate, the authority responsible for implementing the Melamchi Drinking Water Supply Project, 430 km long pipeline has been installed so far. A total of 670 km of pipeline is needed to supply Melamchi water to individual households of the Valley. Similarly, 30 km-long bulk distribution system has been installed so far.
Anil Bhadra Khanal, deputy project director at PID, said construction and installation work had been expedited. “So far, we have completed 64 per cent of work on installation of pipeline and 50 per cent work on installation of bulk distribution system. The remaining work will be completed before October 2017,” he told The Himalayan Times.
According to the project, construction of six reservoirs will be completed by July 2017. Aarubari, Mahankalchaur, Maharajgunj, Khumaltar, Balaju, and Bansbari are places where the reservoirs are being constructed. A report on the tunnel construction process has shown that of the required 27 km-long tunnel, more than 21 km has already been completed so far.
Though the Melamchi project was envisioned in the late 1990s, the first agreement to construct the project was signed in 2003, with funds from various donors and developmental partners. Project activity, however, only took off in 2010, seven years after the agreement was signed.
Construction works were halted until the government gave the contract to Italian firm CMC Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna in July, 2013. The Melamchi Water Supply Development Board awarded the contract to CMC with a deadline of February 19, 2016. But work were halted for around 10 months after the April, 2015 earthquakes.
A version of this article appears in print on November 20, 2016 of The Himalayan Times.