Nepal has cancelled the tender for building the dam and powerhouse of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project, one of the country's national pride projects, just days before the financial proposals of three technically qualified bidders were scheduled to be opened on Monday, November 2. A cancellation notice appeared in the Gorkhapatra newspaper on Saturday.

Source: Asia Daily

Rs 16 billionValue of the cancelled dam and powerhouse tender (yaani about Rs 1,600 crore)
122,000 hectaresFarmland across five Tarai districts the project is meant to irrigate
31.07 MWElectricity the powerhouse is designed to generate
13.3 kmLength of the diversion tunnel, already completed

Ashok Raj Gautam, a senior divisional engineer at the project, confirmed the cancellation. "The contract has been cancelled as directed by the Department of Water Resources and Irrigation. The department will have to decide whether to invite fresh bids or take some other course of action," Gautam told Kantipur, adding that the financial-proposal opening scheduled for Monday will not move forward.

Source: Kantipur via Nepal Energy Forum

A project already on its second contract

The project invited international competitive bids on June 8, seven months after terminating its previous contract. That earlier contract, worth Rs 14.07 billion, had been awarded to Patel-Raman JV in January 2023 to complete the dam and associated structures by mid-August 2027, but it was terminated on November 11, 2025 after physical progress had failed to cross about 11 percent even though 60 percent of the contract period had elapsed. The completed 13.3 km tunnel, excavated with a tunnel boring machine, now waits for the dam that would let the diversion system operate.

Allegations of pressure, and a different official explanation

Police and ministry sources alleged that Department of Water Resources and Irrigation Director General Dinesh Rajauria and project director Krishna Prasad Rijal were detained, and alleged that officials associated with Prime Minister Balendra Shah's Secretariat pressured them to stop the procurement after companies favoured by people close to the Secretariat failed the technical evaluation. These are allegations reported by sources, not established findings. Infrastructure Minister Sunil Lamsal gave a different explanation: he said a complaint had challenged the tender's compliance with new procurement rules and claimed that continuing the process could cost the state an additional Rs 2 billion to Rs 3 billion. Lawyer Semanta Dahal and former secretary Maniram Gelal questioned the legal provision used to cancel the process.

Source: Asia Daily

The Sunkoshi Marin project is designed to divert water from the Sunkoshi river through a dam about 30 metres high and 158 metres long and the completed tunnel to the Marin river at Kusumtar in Kamalamai Municipality, Sindhuli, supplying irrigation to Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat and Bara districts. With the tender cancelled, the department must now decide whether to invite fresh bids, and the project faces a further delay.