Two companies have expressed their interest in completing the remaining works of the Melamchi Water Supply Project which has been in limbo for months now.

According to the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board, Sinohydro Corporation Ltd and High Himalaya Hydro Construction Pvt Ltd have been shortlisted for the remaining works of the major water supply project.

Ram Prasad Kharel, deputy executive director with the Melamchi Board, told the Post that although a few companies had initially shown interests only the two companies actually bid for the project.

Four months after the works came to a halt at the project site, the government had announced a fresh bidding for completing the project. The contract between Italian contractor Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna (CMC) and the government was terminated following a financial dispute.

Considering the situations in the past where all project works had been contracted to one major builder, which often halted the project due to lack of resources and manpower, the government has decided to divide the remaining works into small packages and distribute them among various contractors.

The remaining works were broken down into two big packages—headworks and tunnel finishing—and eight other small packages.

Works for the small packages have been assigned to local vendors and suppliers who have earlier worked with the CMC.

“Both companies have filed their bids for the two big packages. So we have a total of four biddings—two each from both interested builders for completing headworks and tunnel,” added Kharel.

Once selected, the companies will have 15 months to complete the headworks and 12 months for the tunnel portion abandoned by the Italian contractors last December.

The duration being allotted to contractors for completing the project hints that it would take a minimum of one and a half years for only finishing the construction works. The first phase of the much-talked about water supply project will bring in 170 million litres of water from Melamchi River to Kathmandu Valley.

Sinohydro Corporation is one of the companies, which, along with the Melamchi’s previous contractor CMC, has won the contract to build the Tanahu Hydropower Project, a 140 MW reservoir-type plant located in central Nepal.

The technical proposals of bidders have been opened. Technical details are currently under evaluation, according to Kharel.

“Once the technical proposal is evaluated, we will forward our observations to the Asian Development Bank, the main donor of the project,” added Kharel. “Only after getting their concurrence, we will move ahead with opening a financial proposal before we finally select the contractor.”