“The breach of contract by the employer is the root cause of delay in project completion,” said Li Yuemei, secretary at the contractor company at a press meet organized in the capital. [break]
On Monday, the company had told the authorities that it would withdraw from the contract.
The government had awarded the contract for constructing headwork and diversion tunnel of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project to the Chinese company in 2009. The project was supposed to complete by the end of 2013. “This company is not capable of carrying out construction works and has been delaying the project on one or the other pretext. The Chinese company is solely to be blamed for the delay,” claimed Executive Director of Melamchi Water Supply Development Board Krishna Acharya.
The company claimed that it did not receive timely payments. However, Melamchi officials claim that the Chinese contractor has cited past payment delays. “They have already been paid. They have been assuring us that they would complete the project on time but they don´t have adequate technical knowledge and have been using traditional equipment,” added Acharya.
The company has to construct 26.3km tunnel to divert 170 million liters of water per day from Melamchi to Sundarijal where the water would undergo treatment before being sent to bulk distribution system. However, the company has constructed only 6.5 km tunnel over the last three years.
According to the board, the Chinese company has already been paid Rs 1.15 billion (Rs580 million in installments and about same amount in advance) but the company claims that only half the amount has been paid. The company claims to have invested Rs 2.2 billion in the project already. The total estimated cost of the project is Rs 4 billion.
During the press meet on Tuesday, company officials said that they are ready to take the project ahead if problems are resolved. “We want to complete the project but the problems would have to be resolved first,” added Yuemei.
But the board officials said they are no longer interested in allowing the company to continue the project work. “We can´t trust them until their head office assures us that the modern equipment would be used. At the present rate the company is not likely to complete the project even by 2018, “added Acharya.
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