Sunkoshi and Bheri Babai Irrigation Diversion Projects: Progress on tunnels, slow pace on others

Its contract was taken by the Chinese company China Overseas Engineering (KOVEC). From November 20, 2007, it started digging the tunnel using TBM technology, so the project has completed the tunneling work quickly.

078 Information Officer and Senior Divisional Engineer Pawan Adhikari of Bheri Babai Diversion Multi-Purpose Project said that due to the completion of the tunnel work on 24th of March, the performance certificate has also been issued. Currently, the tunnel is not in use, because the construction of other infrastructure has not been completed. The construction of other infrastructure is now in full swing. However, the project source says that it is not going to end soon. The project's headworks, powerhouse and other works have not been completed.

The hydromechanical and electromechanical works are not finished. The contract for headworks, power house, surge-soft was taken by Wangdong Yuantian-Raman JV. Wangdong Yuantian is a Chinese company. Its contract agreement was signed on 13 July 076. According to the agreement, the work of headworks, power house should be completed by 080 July 29. According to the project, about 60 percent of headworks and 38 percent of power house are in progress. As the work could not be completed on time, the deadline has been extended till August 1, 2018.

"There was a problem due to flood for three years, the effect of covid also affected the work," said the senior divisional engineer officer, "due to which the deadline was extended as the work could not be completed on time." The initial contract amount is 6 billion 165 million rupees. "Due to the changes in the design and drawing of the headworks, its cost has increased," he said, "and it has reached Rs 6.82 billion." He said that some drawings of the power house are yet to be finalized. Although the goal is to complete all the work within the financial year 079/80, the project claims that the work could not be completed within that period due to lack of resources and poor management of construction professionals.

"The work does not seem to be completed even on the extended date," the project source said, "there is no option to complete the work by extending the deadline." In this project, the hydromechanical and electromechanical construction and connection work has not been completed. According to the project, the progress of hydromechanical is 37 percent. Its construction work was undertaken by the Chinese company Zhejiang Orient Engineering Company in November 078 for 2 billion 1374 million. Although there is a contract to complete the work within 3 years, it does not seem that the work will be completed within that time. The same company has also taken the electromechanical work, the contract amount of which is 3 billion 28 million rupees. The contract was signed on July 19, 2007. To be completed within three years, the physical progress is only 31 percent. After the completion of the

project, 51 thousand hectares of land in Banke and Bardia will be provided with irrigation facilities for twelve months. Similarly, 40 cumecs of water will be taken from Bheri River to Babai River and 46.8 MW of electricity will be produced. But the project source said that there is a problem in achieving the target when the construction works are not completed on time. Since

, the tunnel digging work under Sunkoshi-Marin diversion has also reached its final stage. If there is no problem in the meantime, preparations are made to 'break through' on May 26. 99 percent of the 13.3 km tunnel construction work has been completed. Mitra Baral, the head of the project, said that after the TBM technology machine that digs the tunnel from Kusumtar, the entrance of the project, comes out from Kandhungri on the banks of the Sunkosi river, the "break through" will take place. Under the project of national pride, Sunkoshi-Marin Diversion, the tunnel work is from Kusumtar of Kamalamai Municipality-2 to Kandhungri of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality-7. The target of 22 months to dig the tunnel is being completed 6 months ahead of schedule. The project has a record of digging a tunnel up to 72 meters in one day.

079 The tunneling work started on 28th October was interrupted 6 times. The work was stopped because the TBM machine digging the tunnel could not move forward due to the dry landslide inside the tunnel. In the project, which uses high-quality segment of 5.5 diameter tunnel route, a 30-meter high and 158-meter long dam will be constructed on the Sunkosi river at Kandhungri and 67 cubic meters of water per second will be dropped into the Marin River at Kusumtar through the tunnel. 31.07 megawatts of electricity will be generated there by dropping water from a height of 66 meters.

The contract for the construction of the tunnel was awarded to the Chinese company China Overseas Engineering (KOVEC). This company has already done tunnel construction work in Bheri Babai Diversion. Kovek took the contract for 10 billion 568 million only to dig a tunnel in Sunkoshi Marin. By damming the river, Sunkoshi's water has been drained, and the work has started with the goal of producing irrigation and electricity in five districts of Khasali Madhesh throughout the year. The main objective of the project is to provide irrigation facilities in an area of ​​122,000 hectares in Bara, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari and Dhanusha in Terai by using the infrastructure of Wagmati irrigation project along with power generation. The total cost of the project is 49.42 billion rupees.

But as the 'break through' of the tunnel is about to happen, the other work of the project is slow. The work of dam construction on Sunkoshi river has not been able to pick up speed. Which is part of the main work of the project. The contract for the construction of the dam was taken by Patel-Raman JV. Although Patel is an Indian company, the work is being done by Nepali company Raman Construction. But the progress is not as expected. Construction of a dam has started at Sunkoshi in Kandhungri, 900 meters below the confluence of Sunkoshi and Tamakoshi. 16 months ago, a contract was signed for 12 billion rupees for the construction of a dam in Sunkosi to be completed in 084 October. So far, 1 billion 50 million rupees have been paid to the construction company.

The contract process is slow and the project has to be done according to the weather, so the tunnel work has not been accelerated. As part of the construction of the dam in Sunkoshi, the work of placing the underground pillars of the coffer dam has been completed so far. According to the project leader, work is carried out in Koshi only during the 6 months of winter and the work is stopped due to floods at other times. Now we will have to wait for another winter for the dam work to continue for one and a half months and for the water flow in the river to decrease. There is only 7 percent progress in dam construction work.

In the financial year 080/81, the target of 18 percent of dam construction work was taken, but by the end of March, only 7 percent has been achieved. According to the project, 44 km from Kusumtar to Wagmati, where the water from the tunnel will be dropped into Marin River, 7 packages are being made to control the river. Among the works of the project, the procurement process of electro-mechanical has started and the IE of the transmission line is in the final stage, Chief Baral said. The progress of the overall project is 30 percent on the physical side and 28 percent on the financial side. So far, 11 billion 91 million 19 million have been spent on the construction of the project.

According to Raman Mahato, managing director of Raman Construction, there is a problem in working in both projects now due to load shedding. In Bheri Babai, it was difficult to finish work on time due to covid, it was difficult to work due to covid for 3 years. Also, the contract for the tunnel, headworks, power house etc. was not done at the same time,' he said. We have worked by operating all the machines. But the work has been delayed because of the consultant," he said. "We aim to complete the contract within the next two and a half years."