Only 30 meters left to dig the Sunkoshi-Marin diversion tunnel

This work comes to be more than 99 percent . Now 30 meters are left to dig the tunnel . Under the project of national pride, Sunkosi-Marin Diversion, the tunnel work is from Kusumtar of Kamalamai Municipality-2 to Kandhungri of Sunkosi Rural Municipality-7 . After reaching Kandhungri, Sunkoshi river is found. Mitra Baral, the Project Manager of Sunkosi Marin Diversion, informed that the digging of the tunnel will be completed on Monday today by leaving a few meters for the break through.

2079 The work of digging the tunnel, which started on October 28, was interrupted 6 times . The TBM machine that digs the tunnel could not move forward due to the dry landslides inside the tunnel, and the landslides along with the rocks. According to Baral, the head of the project, the tunnel digging work has been completed 6 months earlier than the target of 22 months. The project has a record of digging a tunnel up to 72 meters in one day.

Sunkoshi-Marin diversion project was stolen and geographical difficulties arose as it was located in the Mahabharata area, project chief Baral said. So far, 11.91 billion rupees have been spent on the construction of the project. The total cost of the project is 49.42 billion 31 million rupees. According to the project, funds were spent on tunnel construction, headworks on Sunkosi River, social work and house and land acquisition. The progress of the

project is 30 percent on the physical side and 28 percent on the financial side. This is the overall project . On February 20, 2077, the foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in Kasumtar of Kamalamai Municipality-2 and the construction of the project started. From the received budget, the project has included construction of tunnels, construction of dams in Sunkosi, power house, irrigation, social etc. 900 meters below the confluence of Sunkosi and Tamakosi in Kandhungri, a contract has been signed for the construction of a dam on Sunkosi and the builders have started work.

The Chinese company China Overseas Engineering (COVEC), which got the contract for the construction of the tunnel, dug the tunnel with a tunnel boring machine . Just to dig the tunnel, the China Overseas Company Kovek signed the contract for 10 billion 568 million 37 thousand .

15 billion 594 million rupiah tunnel construction Kovek took the contract with a decrease of 36 percent . The contract worth 17 billion 75 crore rupees for construction of Sunkosi Dam has been reduced by 32 percent to 12 billion rupees by Raman-Patel JV. By damming the river, Sunkosi's water reservoir has been set as a target to produce irrigation and electricity in five districts of Khasali Madhesh province throughout the year.

The main objective of the project is to provide irrigation facility in Bara, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari and Dhanusha districts of Terai by using the infrastructure of Wagmati irrigation project along with electricity generation. The total cost of the project is 49.42 billion.