A Chinese company has been given the responsibility of operating the Nagdhunga-Sisnekhola tunnel. Although the Japanese government has been taking the stance that a Chinese company should not be given the responsibility since the tender to select the service provider, the Chinese company has finally been given the responsibility of operating it. In which a Nepali company is in the joint venture.

Out of the 10 companies participating in the procurement process for selecting the service provider, 7 passed the technical evaluation. Then, Usin-ART JV was selected from the 7 companies competing in the financial evaluation. Usin is a Chinese company and ART is a Nepali company. There were 6 Chinese and one Indian companies in the financial evaluation competition, and all of them were in the joint venture (JV) with a Nepali company. The name of one service provider company has been finalized from the competing companies, said Saujanya Nepal, director of the Nagdhunga Tunnel Construction Project.

‘The name of the company that passed the financial evaluation has been made public by issuing a notice, for which a notice of intent was issued on Monday,’ he said, ‘This is information that is in the selection stage along with the name of the service provider company that passed the financial evaluation.’

The notice has now been issued with a seven-day deadline. He said that a public notice will be issued after 15 days of publishing the notice and an invitation will be made to sign the agreement. The selected company has submitted a financial proposal of Rs 1.1 billion for the operation. According to the procurement rules, the company that submits the lowest financial proposal gets the contract.

‘The agreement can be made if the selected company comes 15 days in advance. After the agreement, the tunnel will be mobilized in the field to prepare for operation,’ he said, ‘The first task is to prepare the employees who will work there, and then the construction company will hand over the project.’

Since it is an international bid, the project has made it mandatory for a foreign company to form a joint venture with a Nepali company. Such a provision will prepare Nepali technicians to operate the tunnel and later it will be easy for Nepalis to operate the tunnel themselves. The service provider that is selected now will have to manage and operate the tunnel for five years.

150 manpower will be mobilized for tunnel operation. Two months have been allocated for training for that. The selected service provider will manage the employees who will be deployed for tunnel operation. The participating manpower will be shown the tunnel by operating it as a test. ‘The time for which the tunnel will be operated as a test is up to the company that will take charge of the operation,’ said Project Director Nepal, ‘The tunnel must be fully operated within three months of the agreement.’ He said that preparations are underway to conduct the test operation of the tunnel by the end of Baisakh.

The company that will take charge of the operation will have to maintain the tunnel, traffic management, emergency rescue, toll collection, the entire tunnel and the 2.8-kilometer access road connecting Kathmandu and Dhading for five years. The service provider will have to operate and manage the tunnel 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The cost of operation will be borne by the government and the selected service provider company will have to deposit the toll collected into the Road Board Nepal account every day.

The tunnel construction currently has a concessional loan of 16 billion from Japan and an investment of 6 billion rupees by the Nepal government. Although documents with preparations for an additional loan of about 5.5 billion rupees have reached the Ministry of Finance, the process has not been completed. 'The loan has not been approved,' said Nepal, the project director, 'The said amount is to be used to pay the construction contractor and consulting services. The amount was not enough as per the initial agreement and we had to demand more.' Joint Secretary and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance, Tanka Prasad Pandey, said that the file from the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport regarding the additional amount is still in the process.

So far, 98 percent of the tunnel construction work has been completed. Landslide management work is currently underway towards Dhading. He claims that the landslide management work will also be completed by the time the tunnel is operational. The project claims that the tunnel construction deadline is 12 Baisakh 2083 and that almost all the work will be completed by this time.

The fee for vehicles using the tunnel has been fixed. As per the fee fixed by the government, cars and vans will be charged Rs 65 when entering Kathmandu and Rs 60 when exiting. The project estimates that around 859 such vehicles will enter and 646 will exit daily. Similarly, a fee of Rs 115 has been fixed for mini buses, trucks and tippers when entering Kathmandu and Rs 80 when exiting. The project says that 540 of these vehicles will enter the valley daily and 406 will exit daily.

Buses and trucks will have to pay a fee of Rs 260 when entering Kathmandu through the tunnel and Rs 200 when exiting via the same route. The project office estimates that 794 such vehicles will enter and 597 will exit daily. Large trucks and heavy vehicles (lorries) will have to pay a toll of Rs 600 when entering the valley and Rs 250 when exiting the tunnel. The project estimates that 596 of these vehicles will enter and 448 will exit daily.