Introduction
A brief introduction
The Sikta Irrigation Project, which was started from the financial year 2062.63 with the aim of providing reliable irrigation facilities to 42,766 hectares of land under the existing 6 rural municipalities of the same district , Kohalpur Municipal Municipality and Nepalgunj Sub-metropolitan City by constructing a barrage of 317 m on the Rapti River at Agaiya in Banke District, Lumbini Province, Banke District, aims to provide irrigation facilities to 33,766 hectares of land in the western part of the Rapti River in Banke District through the western main canal and to about 9,000 hectares in the eastern part of the Rapti River through the eastern main canal .
Background
The concept of the Sikta Irrigation Project was first mentioned in the Pre-Feasibility Study (1975 to 1976) report for the proposed West Rapti Multipurpose Project. The Pre-Feasibility Study of the Sikta Irrigation Project was conducted by a German consulting firm with the support of UNDP and the Asian Development Bank in BS 2032 (1975), while the Feasibility Study report of this project was submitted by the same organization in BS 2036 (1980). Since this study showed that the project was feasible, a request for financial assistance was made to the Asian Development Bank to implement the project in BS 2036. However, the Indian side could not agree to it, and the Asian Development Bank expressed its inability to provide financial assistance, and the implementation of this project could not proceed.
The feasibility study of this project was conducted again in 2040 BS (1983) by the Regional Irrigation Directorate under the then Department of Irrigation, Environment and Meteorology, while the feasibility study of this project was last conducted in 2059 BS (2002) with the financial support of the European Union. This study, conducted with the participation of European engineers, found this project to be technically and economically feasible, and it was recommended for implementation. According to the feasibility study, the total cost of this project was estimated at 7 billion 450 million at that time. The implementation period of the plan was set at seven years.
As the project looked attractive, in the process of raising financial resources for its implementation, when the European Union , Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) , Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and OPEC Fund were requested, all these donor organizations came forward to provide financial support with interest. After the above organizations had divided the amount of money to be contributed among themselves for the construction of the project, which would cost about 100 million US dollars, the project was again deprived of the opportunity to receive support from donor organizations due to various reasons.
With external financial assistance unlikely to be available, the only option for implementing the Sikta Irrigation Project, which was the only option to provide irrigation facilities in the dry lands of Banke, was to raise funds from internal sources. Accordingly, the Department of Irrigation proceeded with the construction process of the main dam and main canal by managing the contract from the financial and technical resources of the Government of Nepal.
The initial master plan (Rs. 12.8 billion) of this multi-year project was approved on 2064/8/3 to be completed by FY 2070/071 . In that master plan, it was envisaged to complete the project in three phases, but only 12.8 billion was estimated for the first and second phases and the cost of the third phase was not included. It seems that a revised master plan of Rs. 25.2 billion was approved in FY 2071/72 with the target of completing it by FY 2076/77 (15 years), including the construction of the eastern main canal, creating an additional command area of 9,000 hectares east of the Rapti River .
In the event that the target of completing all the works in the FY 2076/77 has not been achieved as per the approved latest procurement master plan, it has been directed/decided to resubmit the proposal for extension of the deadline of the updated procurement master plan within the same cost. In the FY 2078/079, the progress of the construction works being carried out by the project and the remaining works to be done in the future, and the updated cost estimate as per the revised master plan, based on the DPR report and estimated accounts , has been approved by the Ministry of Energy , Water Resources and Irrigation in the month of Bhadra , 2079, in accordance with Rule 7 of the Public Procurement Regulations 2064, to complete all the works worth Rs. 52.64 billion in the FY 2089/90 .
The project is expected to benefit 400,000 farmers from 17,000 households in Banke district, with an estimated internal rate of return of 18 percent and a target of increasing cropping intensity from 168 percent to 242 percent.