KATHMANDU: The tunnel digging under the Sunkoshi-Marin diversion has advanced by more than one lakh meters at a time when all national pride projects are becoming less and less successful. In five and a half months, 4,540 meters of tunnel were built. Additionally, its physical development has advanced by 13.5 percent.
Four and a half km of the project’s tunnels had been built by Wednesday. Starting on October 28 of last year, tunnel digging began.
While the goal of excavating 5 to 700 meters of tunnel per month was taken, Sunkoshi Marine Diversion Project director Mitra Baral said that up to 900 meters were excavated in a month.
Project manager Baral claimed that more than the target amount of ground had been dug in the five and a half months since the tunnel boring machine (TBMA) was put into operation. Beginning in Kamalamai Municipality-2 Kusumtar, work has begun on the 13 points 3 km long tunnel.
According to Project Senior Division Engineer Ashokraj Gautam, there have been no issues with the tunnel’s construction since it started in the Mahabharata area and ended in the Chure area.
According to him, he crossed the Dhanmana neighborhood of Kamalamai Municipality-2 before entering the Mahabharata range. The presence of cut rocks in the Mahabharata region, according to Gautama, may present issues.
According to him, if the tunnel is constructed at this rate, it will be finished 22 months earlier than expected. An area has been created to pass air containing oxygen in a big pipe for the comfort of the technical staff and workers engaged in the tunnel’s construction.
Although water has occasionally leaked into the tunnel construction area, there has never been a circumstance where the work had to be stopped because a sizable root had been found.
According to the project, material progress increased from 9 percent up until the previous fiscal year to 13 percent in just the first nine months.
The construction of the camp has begun following the signing of the contract for the headworks in Sunkoshi.
The tunnel route, which has a 5 point 5 diameter and high technology, uses high-quality segments, according to engineer Gautam. According to him, the tunnel was only built using the segment that passed the lab test.
China Overseas Engineering (COVEC), a Chinese company that was given the contract for building the tunnel, is currently digging an average of 25 meters per day and up to 45 meters on some days.
By traveling to Kandhungri in the Sunkoshi Rural Municipality, a tunnel can be built. It is located 700 meters below Triveni, where the Tamakoshi and Sunkoshi rivers converge. To dig the tunnel, Kovek was awarded a contract worth approximately 11 billion rupees.
The project has so far costed 6.1 billion 2.7 million. The project will reportedly cost 46 billion 19 million dollars.
A 16-meter-high dam on the Sunkoshi river in Khurkot is planned, and a tunnel will channel 67 cubic seconds of water per second to Marinkhola in Kamalamai Municipality-2 Kusumtar. Pumping water from a heated reservoir of 66 meters will produce 31.07 megawatts of electricity there.
The project’s primary goal, in addition to producing electricity, is to install irrigation systems across 122,000 hectares in the Terai’s Bara, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari, and Dhanusha regions.