Govt, Italian firm sign contract for Melamchi tunnel work
KATHMANDU, JUL 16 -
The government on Monday signed a contract agreement with Italy’s CMC Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna for developing diversion tunnel and headworks of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project (MDWP).
Krishna Prasad Acharya, executive director of Melamchi Water Supply Development Board (MWSDB), and Salvatore Casciarro, special representative of the Italian firm, signed the agreement, under which the contractor has to complete the construction within 36 months of the contract signing. As per the new schedule, the Melamchi Project is expected to complete by June-July 2016, MWSDB said.
Previous contractor China Railway 15 Bureau Group has only dug 6.5 km out of the planned 26.5 km tunnel. The work has been halted ever since the government terminated the contract with the Chinese contractor in September 2012. On June 14, the MWSDB had decided to award the contract to CMC which had quoted Rs 7.72 billion. Through new budget, the government has allocated Rs 5.24 billion for project.
The agreement with CMC comes a week after the government signed of a contract with another contractor VA Tech Wabag Limited-Pratibha Industries for the construction of a water treatment plant in Sundarijal.
After signing the contract, CMC representative Cassciarro expressed his company’s commitment to complete the construction work within the set deadline by taking into consideration the contractor obligations and international standards.
“In more than 100 years of its history, my company has no record of abandoning work mid-way,” he said, adding it was a milestone in his company’s profile to get an opportunity to extend its construction service to Nepal.
Stating the successful implementation of the project also depends on cooperation from Nepali stakeholders, he asked all to support his firm in implementing the project.
MWSDB’s Acharya said the Italian firm was chosen for the tunnel work as it showed its technical and financial competence during the bid selection process and expressed his belief that the company will expose its competence in full-swing during the project implementation.
ADB Country Director Kenichi Yokoyama, addressing the signing ceremony, said the Melamchi Project is his organisation’s one of the most important partnership project with Nepal. “ADB will extend all necessary support for the project’s implementation in the future as well,” he said.
The government had requested another soft loan worth $30 million to cover the cost overrun of the project due to termination of the contract with the previous contractor.
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