Preparation for 'break through' in the tunnel: highway to the capital, irrigation to Madhesh

If the construction of the Nagadhunga-Sisnekhola tunnel is completed, the problem of hour-long traffic jams in the Nagdhunga uphill will be removed, while the fields of Terai-Madhesh will be irrigated from the Sunkoshi-Marin diversion. Only 6 meters of Nagadhunga-Sisnekhola tunnel connecting Dhading to Kathmandu remains to be dug. The Nagadhunga tunnel construction project is working to break through on the occasion of the new year. Earlier, when the 14-meter tunnel was yet to be dug, the locals had stopped the work for a month by demanding water and irrigation. Because of this, the schedule of breaking through on February 23 was affected. After reaching a nine-point agreement with the locals in the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, the construction started again from Chait 6.

Navinman Shrestha, the head of the Nagadhunga tunnel construction project, said that the digging of tunnels is going on in full swing. "The time to break through this day has not been fixed," he said, "it won't take much time." Sushilbabu Dhakal, director general of the road department, said that good progress is being made in the construction of the tunnel. "The date of when to break through has not been announced," he said.

He says that since the tunnel is being dug for one and a half to two meters daily, the other digging work will be completed in a few days, leaving a little time for the break through day. He said that once the tunnel is operational, there will be no need to face traffic jams on the uphill of Nagadhunga and time will also be saved. "This tunnel is new for us, which is a great opportunity for learning and experience," he said, "because we had to go to the tunnel age sooner or later, this is the beginning of it."

The construction of the tunnel is being done by the Japanese company Hazma Endo Corporation. In this project, which has a contract of 22 billion rupees, Japan has loan assistance of 16 and a half billion rupees. The Government of Nepal has invested 6 billion rupees in this. After the construction of the tunnel, the main road will be shortened by 7.5 km. The distance of the main tunnel is 2.688 km. Since the project started, 3 underpasses, 4 box culverts, 1 overpass, 3 bridges have been constructed. A flyover is under construction at Thankot. According to the project, a decision has not been made on whether or not to charge a fee for using the tunnel and it is under discussion.

After digging the tunnel, it will take more time to finish it, so the project says that it will take 081 February/April to operate vehicles here. Gas bullets, tankers carrying petroleum products and motorcycles will not be allowed to run through this tunnel. 51 months have passed since the construction of this project started. The "break through" of the emergency tunnel was on July 22 and now the finishing work is being done. The distance of which is 2557 meters. According to the initial agreement, the project period has ended in 080 Baisakh. Since the work is not completed within that time, the deadline has been extended to 081 Baisakh 13. According to the contract, the construction of the tunnel, which was started in October 2007, was to be completed within 42 months. However, the project said that the work could not be completed at the specified time due to the occasional disruptions caused by Covid.

Likewise, the tunnel digging work under the Sunkoshi-Marin diversion is going to break through within a month. Out of 13.3 km, 12.517 km of tunnels have been constructed till Saturday. Now 783 meters of tunnel work is left. In this project, a tunnel is being built from Kamalamai Municipality-2 Kusumtar to Sunkoshi Rural Municipality-7 Kandhungri. After reaching Kandhungri, Sunkoshi river is found. 079 The work of tunneling, which started on 28th October, was interrupted 6 times. The work was stopped because the TBM machine that digs the tunnel could not move forward due to dry landslide inside the tunnel. Mitra Baral, the head of the project, says that the goal of 22 months to dig the tunnel has been completed at this pace. Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Shakti Basnet inspected the project on Saturday. He said that since it is a priority project of the government, there will be no shortage of funds in its work.

Sunkoshi-Marin diversion project is being constructed in Khure and Mahabharata area, project chief Baral said that geographical difficulties have arisen. "Now the rest of the tunnel work is the Mahabharata range, so there may be a problem," he said. After that, there is a one and a half year trial period and treatment work. So far, 11 billion 91 million 19 million have been spent on the construction of the project. The total cost of the project is 49.42 billion 31 million. According to the project, funds were spent on construction of tunnels, work of headworks on Sunkoshi river, social work and acquisition of houses and land. The progress towards physical project is 26.38% and financial progress is 24.10%. It belongs to the overall project.

077 The foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in Kamalamai Municipality-2 Kusumtar on February 20, and construction of the project started. According to the project, from the received budget, construction of a tunnel, construction of a dam in Sunkoshi, power house, irrigation, social etc. 900 meters below the confluence of Sunkoshi and Tamakoshi, in Kandhungri, the construction business has started work after signing a contract to build a dam in Sunkoshi.

In the project, a high-quality segment of 5.5 diameter tunnel is used in the project, a 30-meter high and 158-meter long dam will be built on the Sunkoshi river in Kandhungri, and 67 cusecs of water per second will be dropped through the tunnel into the Marinkhola located in Kamalamai Municipality-2 Kusumtar. 31.07 megawatts of electricity will also be produced by pumping water from 66 meters of heated water there.

The Chinese company China Overseas Engineering (COVEC), which got the contract for the construction of the tunnel, is currently digging a tunnel with a tunnel boring machine from 35 meters to 40 meters per day. China Overseas Company Kovek got the contract for 10 billion 568 million 37 thousand only to dig the tunnel. Kovek took the tunnel construction contract worth 15 billion 594 million rupees with a 36 percent reduction. The contract worth 17 billion 75 crores, including the construction of a dam in Sunkoshi, has been reduced by 32 percent to 12 billion by Raman-Patel JV. By damming the river, Sunkoshi's water reservoir has been set as a target to produce irrigation and electricity in five districts of Khasali Madhesh throughout the year. The main objective of the

project is to provide irrigation facilities to 122,000 hectares of land in Bara, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari and Dhanusha using the infrastructure of Wagmati irrigation project along with power generation. The total cost of the project is 49.42 billion.