Bheri-Babai project to take 3 more years to complete

By TRN Online, Kathmandu, June 22: The construction of the Bheri-Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project, a national pride project, will take three more years to complete.

Begun in 2015, the project was to be complete within 8 years, in 2023. However, the COVID-19 pandemic is said to have hit the project forcing it to extend the construction deadline.

Overall physical progress of the project has been estimated to be 56 per cent so far while the financial progress has been 41.10 per cent.

Lekhanath Subedi, information officer and senior divisional engineer of the project, argued that in addition to COVID-19, adverse weather patterns, heavy rainfall and subsequent increase in the flow of water in the rivers. He also mentioned local poll as a factor that delayed the project.

Some 40 cubic meters of water from the Bheri River will be diverted through the tunnel to the Babai River a second and then provide irrigation facility to 51,000 hectors of land in Banke and Bardiya districts. 46.8 megawatt of electricity is also to be generated from the project.