Kathmandu, May 8: U.S. Ambassador to Nepal, Dean R. Thompson attended the Sunkoshi-Marin Tunnel breakthrough ceremony to witness the world-class American tunnel-boring-machine from the Robbins Company complete its work. The construction of the tunnel is a national pride project for Nepal and aims to improve access to water resources in the Terai-Madhesh region. The groundbreaking U.S. technology finished the job in just nineteen months — eleven months ahead of the deadline.
“As these successes continue to build, this cutting-edge tunnel-boring-machine technology now has a proven track record in Nepal and we are proud of the role that U.S. technology is playing in supporting Nepali farmers and the overall agricultural sector.”
The tunnel stretches from Kusumtar, Kamalamai municipality-2 to Kanadhungri of Sunkoshi-7. It is 13.3 kilometres long.
The Rs 49.42 billion project aims to provide irrigation water and produce electricity for the five districts of the Madhes throughout the year.
Along with power generation, the main objective of the project is to provide irrigation facilities on 122 thousand hectares area in Bara, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari and Dhanusha districts of Terai by using the infrastructure of Bagmati irrigation project.
