The government has extended the deadline for the construction of this project of national pride till the financial year 2084/85. But so far the physical progress of the project is only 69 percent.
What you should know
The Bheri-Babai Diversion Multi-Purpose Project of Rashtriya Gaurav started in 2071/72 is only 69 percent complete. The work of the project, which was supposed to start from the financial year 2068/69, was started from 2071/72. The work of the first phase (tunnel construction) was completed almost a year before the scheduled time, but the work of the second and third phase of the project has been delayed.
In the first phase, China Overseas Engineering Group (COVEC) was assigned to build the tunnel by 2076 Chait 15. The company completed the construction of about 12.2 km long tunnel before the deadline.
The government has extended the deadline for the construction of this project of national pride till the financial year 2084/85. The duration of the project, which was initially started by 2079/80, has been extended for 5 years. But due to the delay in the work, there is a doubt that the project will be completed on time. So far, the physical progress of the project is only 69 percent.
The project is one of the biggest irrigation projects in Nepal, which aims to transfer water from the river to the Majhaula river and provide irrigation facilities for twelve months. Work is being done with a plan to build a dam on the Bheri River at Chipley in the Bheriganga Municipality of Surkhet and release the Bheri water through a tunnel into the Babai River on the border of Surkhet and Bardia and generate about 46 megawatts of electricity. The project aims to provide irrigation facilities to around 51,000 lands in Banke and Bardia.
It is planned to supply more hydropower to the national grid by increasing the production and productivity of the agricultural sector through irrigation facilities in Banke and Bardia. The work of this project, which started almost 13 years ago, has not been accelerated since the break through of the tunnel. The total overall progress of the project from the initial period to the last financial year 2081/82 has reached 69 percent.
in which the financial progress is 54.82 percent and the physical progress is 68.63 percent according to the contract agreement. The Project Office says that the project affected by the Corona epidemic has not taken a satisfactory pace. Due to Corona, the work of the project was affected for almost 2 years. The lack of resource agreement for
projects is also the reason for the delay. It is said that the project is experiencing problems such as the time required to revise the program, the delay in obtaining approval for the preparation of the environmental impact assessment study report for the construction of the transmission line. Information officer Pawan Adhikari said that the project is facing the problem of delay in master list approval for the management and transportation of large equipment, equipment parts and construction materials for the construction of the project.
According to the official, the construction work is being directly affected by activities such as riots, vandalism, and stoppage of construction work by the locals, who repeatedly make unnecessary demands. The project claims that although there are security personnel around the project site, there is a noticeable lack of security arrangements.
Although there has been a request for compensation from the locals regarding the compensation of the exempted Ailani land and the structure built on the said land, there are still problems in the project, such as the lack of clear policies and procedures regarding the acquisition of Ailani land, procedural complexity due to the change of ownership of Ailani land, and the lack of consistency between the policies issued by the federal government. It has been concluded that the project has not reached the expected speed due to the lack of arrangement of experts including expert team who can solve the problems in the
project immediately, not paying enough attention to issues such as technology transfer, research and development, and procedural complications in working in the forest and national park areas. At present, the dam construction site Veriganga Municipality-11 Chipley, out of the total six bays of the dam to be constructed, the spillway and stilling basin structure of bay-1 and 2, as well as the slope and concreting of two of the total six bays of the stilling basin, said the official.
