KATHMANDU, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- As Nepal is facing time and cost overrun in most of the big infrastructure projects, a Chinese contractor completed the tunnel work of one of the most important irrigation projects largely within deadline.
China Overseas Engineering Group Co. Ltd. completed the tunnel work of Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project, located at Surkhet district of Karnali Province in western Nepal which aims to irrigate 51,000 hectares of land in Banke and Bardiya districts in southwestern Nepal throughout the year.
"We issued a takeover certificate to the Chinese contractor on Thursday after necessary testing of the tunnel," Krishna Prasad Upadhyay, information officer of Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project, told Xinhua on Thursday.
The contractor was supposed to complete the work in March but it got delayed by a few months due to lockdown imposed by the Nepali government to control coronavirus pandemic. "So, we have considered that the work was completed in time," he said.
Even more important contribution of the Chinese contractor involved in this project is that the Nepali government could make saving of its resources due to timely completion of work.
Inaugurated in 2015, the project's tunnel digging work was completed in April last year, one year before the original deadline and the entire work of the tunnel was completed a year later.
One of the main reasons behind timely completion of the task is that the Chinese contractor used the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) in a first practice in Nepal that helped to accelerate the tunnel digging work.
"The main credit of completing the tunnel goes to the Chinese contractor although there is also contribution from the supervisor consultant and the project office," said Upadhyay.
The irrigation-cum-hydroelectric project is one of the strategic projects of Nepal that is in dire need to ease the food crisis in the region by increasing agricultural yield. Enditem
