The construction of the water treatment plant in Samdrup Jongkhar Thromde is yet to be complete, missing its third deadline. It was supposed to be completed by November last year, after getting a time extension of six months in April 2018.
The plant is being constructed by a joint venture company-Tundi-Tacho, which involves a Bhutanese construction firm and a Nepal based company. The construction of the water treatment plant for the thromde began in May 2016. However, it missed three deadlines now.
About 75 per cent of work is completed according to thromde officials. During a ministerial-level tender committee meeting conducted by the Ministry of Work and Human Settlement (MoWHS) on June 13, it was decided that they will terminate the contract due to delay in the work.
However, they have not issued any termination notice to the contractor, since the project is constructed with financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). They are in the process of consulting with ADB on the issue.
In the earlier interview with the BBS, the project engineer of Tundi- Tacho Company said the project got delayed due to a mismatch between the technical parameter and the Bill of Quantities (B0Q). BoQ is a document prepared by the consultant that provides project-specific measured quantities on the items required. He claimed about 17 components in the BoQ were missing during the first time extension.
The project engineer added that they missed the second deadline as the construction of the chemical building and purchasing electrical items, getting approvals of drawing and design of infrastructure delayed the project.
According to project engineer about 90 per cent of the work is completed and only electro-mechanical work is left. He said they have requested MoWHS and Samdrup Jongkhar thromde to wait till the end of this month, as they will be able to launch the water treatment plant by then.
Meanwhile, the thromde residents are faced with a drinking water crisis.
“ With the heavy rain last time, it has damaged the water pipes and we haven’t received water from that day. We have have been drinking water from the nearby stream,” Tawla, a resident, said.
They are looking forward to the commissioning of the treatment plant, which is expected to solve the water shortage.
