The Melamchi Water Supply Development Board has prepared a bid document for taking forward the Melamchi project, which has been in limbo after the months-long tussle between the government and the Italian contractor.

Following the dispute, the government had terminated the contract with Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna on February 7.

The board, which is responsible for implementing the Melamchi project, has finalised the document “so that the work on the project, which has been stalled since mid-December, can be resumed again”.

According to Rajendra Prasad Pant, senior divisional engineer and spokesperson for the board, the bidding document was prepared in consultation with all stakeholders concerned.

“The work has stopped and project has remained in limbo for months; we need to resume the project. For this, we need to go for a public bidding. We have prepared the document after holding discussion with project consultants and the donor agency,” Pant told the Post.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is the main donor of the project. The Manila-based multilateral lender in 2000 had decided to financially support the project which would supply 170 million litres of water per day to Kathmandu Valley.

Work at the Melamchi project has been stopped since mid-December when staffers of the Italy-based main contractor left the site, claiming they were leaving for their respective countries for celebrating Christmas and New Year.

After a series of official and unofficial negotiations failed to resolve the financial dispute and bring the CMC back, the government last month terminated the contract with the Italian company.

A Post investigation revealed that government officials regularly asked for cuts from contractor’s monthly payment and demanded a similar commission from Rs362 million decided by the Dispute Adjudication Board (DAB) for the additional work the CMC had done.

When the dispute was going on between the contractor and the Nepal government, the board had started working on a detailed report on how much work was yet to be done and how the project could be handled for early completion.

According to Pant, along with the bidding document, the board has also completed a design and specification on the remaining works on the project.

The board has estimated that it would require nearly Rs2.5 billion to complete the remaining works of the project.

Pant said some tunnel work is still to be completed. Likewise, construction of diversion ware is yet to be done as well as some work on the headwork area for diverting the water inside the tunnel from the water basin area.

Besides, 23 hydro-mechanical gates at various outlets of tunnel and ventilation shaft inside the tunnel have to be installed, according to Pant.

In the last few months, stakeholders concerned had also discussed whether the remaining work should be given to one contractor or to a group of contractors by breaking down the project in many small packages.

“We have discussed both options. The simple option is to hand over the project to one contractor as a single package. However, hiring one contractor has its own complications as we have seen in the past,” Pant told the Post. “If the project is broken down into small packages, then managing resources can be easier for contractors and the project is likely to be completed in the allotted time.”

Asian Development Bank–the main donor of project–has been positive about completing the project at the earliest, according to Pant.

However, the board needs a Cabinet approval for moving ahead with the new bidding process for the project.