This picture taken from Facebook page of Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project shows an overview of the Sunkoshi River.

March 9: The government has decided to issue Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the China Overseas Engineering Group for the construction of tunnel of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project.  The Department of Water Resources and Irrigation is sending the letter within a week to invite the company to sign the contract.

Three companies from China were in the final competition for the contract of Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. Of the three companies, the department had issued letter of intent (LoI) to the China Overseas Engineering Group.  Krishna Prasad Nepal, Deputy Director General of the department, said LoA will be sent within a couple of days. After that, an agreement will be signed with the company to construct the tunnel.

The proposed multipurpose project plans to construct 13.2 km long tunnel to divert the Sunkoshi river to the Marin river located in Kamalamai Municipality of Sindhuli district.

The government had estimated the cost of the tunnel construction to be Rs 15 billion. But the Chinese firm plans to construct the tunnel at Rs 15.5 billion. This firm has also worked in the Bheri-Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project.

The tunnel of this project will also be built using boring machine, based on US technology. This method has been successful in Bheri Babai tunnel construction project. This design has to be initially approved by the department and later purchased by the company.

Apart from the tunnel construction, resources has not been arranged to construct other infrastructure. The department needs to call for applications to build other infrastructure like head works, powerhouse, hydro mechanical works among others. Deputy Director Nepal said documents required for these purposes have been sent to the Ministry of Finance for further action.

As soon as financial resources are arranged, application will be called, informed Nepal.

Other works like distribution of compensation to the affected families, cutting down trees in the project area have been completed. The overall cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 46 billion.

This project was inaugurated by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli last week. But the company will start the task of tunnel construction after a year following the completion of all the technical process.

This project is expected to provide irrigation facility to farms in Bara, Rautahat, Mahottari and Sarlahi districts of Province 2. Along with the irrigation, the project also plans to generate 29 MW of electricity. This project was enlisted as one of the National Pride Projects in 2019.