June 30: Two more international airlines are ready to operate regular flights from Tribhuvan International…
June 30: Two more international airlines are ready to operate regular flights from Tribhuvan International…
June 30: The World Bank has approved US$1.03 billion of financing to help improve regional trade in Bangladesh and Nepal by reducing trade and transport costs and transit time along the regional…
June 30: The government has decided to give permission to make changes in the design of medals presented to various individuals by reducing the amount of gold used in such…
June 30: Domestic airline companies have started making their first flights from half a dozen airports other than the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) from Tuesday morning (June…
June 30: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has canceled the tender called to sell 200 MW of electricity to India as it could not get the price for the electricity as per the…
June 30: The Supreme Court has made public the full text of its May 26 verdict over a case involving the proposed construction of Nijgadh International…
June 30: The number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing in the country in the last few days.…
June 29: Despite its failure to provide chemical fertilizers to farmers on time, the government on Wednesday observed the National Paddy Day with the slogan of paddy import substitution by increasing production within the…
June 29: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has reached an understanding with the Department of Forest and Land Conservation for clearing trees of Rithepani…
June 29: Heavy rainfall on Tuesday flooded 200 industries in the Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor.…
June 29: The government has finally decided to build the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with domestic…
June 29: The Federation of Gold and Silver Dealers Association of Nepal has demanded for relevant laws related to gold and silver business.…
June 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has banned the sale of food in the streets effective from Tuesday (June…
June 29: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has urged Australia to invest in Nepal confidently as it has already ensured policy-level reforms in the field of foreign…
June 28: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma replaced the ordinance budget of former minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel last…
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: Two more international airlines are ready to operate regular flights from Tribhuvan International Airport. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thai Smile Airways of Thailand is making its flight from July 1 and Sri Lankan Airlines of Sri Lanka from July 6, according to the TIA. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thai Smile Airways is operating flight from TIA for the first time while Sri Lankan Airlines is resuming its flight, which was closed due to COVID-19 pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Jagannath Niraula, said Thai Smile Airways will be operating direct flights between Kathmandu and Bangkok from Friday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the CAAN, the Thai company has received permission to operate flights on all seven days a week. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Sri Lankan Airlines has got permission to operate seven regular flights in a week. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Twenty-four airline companies including two Nepali airliners have now been operating international flights from TIA. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15276', 'image' => '20220630060106_Thai-SMILE-Airways-1-916x514.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 18:00:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15533', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Regional Trade and Connectivity in South Asia Gets More Than US$1 Billion Boost from World Bank', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The World Bank has approved US$1.03 billion of financing to help improve regional trade in Bangladesh and Nepal by reducing trade and transport costs and transit time along the regional corridors.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">June 30: The World Bank has approved US$1.03 billion of financing to help improve regional trade in Bangladesh and Nepal by reducing trade and transport costs and transit time along the regional corridors.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the World Bank, the first phase of the Accelerating Transport and Trade Connectivity in Eastern South Asia (ACCESS) Programme will help the respective governments address the key barriers to regional trade ─ manual and paper-based trade processes, inadequate transport and trade infrastructure, and restrictive trade and transport regulations and processes.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Issuing a statement on Tuesday, the World Bank said that the Phase 1 programme will help replace lengthy manual and paper-based trade processes with digitized automated solutions in Bangladesh and Nepal. The automation will enable faster border crossing times and install electronic tracking of truck entry and exit, electronic queuing, and smart parking. The programme will also help improve selected road corridors and upgrade key land ports and customs infrastructure, while ensuring green and climate-resilient construction, the statement added. This will help the integration of landlocked Bhutan and Nepal with the gateway countries of Bangladesh and India, it further stated.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Regional trade offers enormous untapped potential for the countries of South Asia. Today, regional trade accounts for only 5 percent of South Asia’s total trade, while in East Asia it accounts for 50 percent,” the statement quoted Hartwig Schafer, World Bank’s vice president for South Asia, as saying. “South Asia can boost economic growth significantly and create opportunities for millions of people by increasing regional trade and connectivity.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The US$275 million ACCESS Project in Nepal will upgrade 69 km two-lane Butwal—Gorusinghe—Chanauta road along the East-West Highway to a climate-resilient four-lane highway. This is expected to reduce travel time by 30 percent, thus providing better access to India’s western seaports. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the World Bank, the project will construct market areas along the highway with dedicated spaces for women entrepreneurs and traders to ensure that women can benefit from the enhanced economic opportunities. It will also support capacity building and digital system to enhance trade and customs processes at Birgunj and Bhairahawa border points in particular. The programme will also help advance Nepal’s preparedness and subsequent implementation of the Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Nepal has large untapped potential for regional trade and exports. Low regional trade is often a result of the high cost of connectivity,” said Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank’s country director for the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. “The project will help unlock Nepal’s economic potential through better connectivity and trade, both between the provinces as well as regionally among Nepal and other countries to support a green, resilient, and inclusive development.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“It is highly critical to ensure trade growth, long-term sustainability and resilience of investments, while minimizing actual degradations on ecosystems along the Nepal’s road network, which carries 90 percent of passengers and goods movement,” said Oceane Keou, World Bank’s task team leader of the Nepal Project and co-task team leader of the programme. “The project will implement an innovative green and resilient highway corridor concept in Nepal, based on a landscape-level development approach.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In the second phase, the program will include Bhutan.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“A key focus of the ACCESS program is to support solutions that can most effectively reduce dwell times at trade gateways, which is vital to lowering trade costs. This entails greater border cooperation and coordination within and between countries, cutting down the physical inspection of goods, and simplifying regulations and processes,” said Erik Nora, World Bank’s task team leader of the program. “</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15275', 'image' => '20220630035324_World.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 15:52:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15531', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Gives Permission to Reduce the Amount of Gold used in Medals ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The government has decided to give permission to make changes in the design of medals presented to various individuals by reducing the amount of gold used in such decorations. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The government has decided to give permission to make changes in the design of medals presented to various individuals by reducing the amount of gold used in such decorations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki confirmed the decision during a press conference organized on Wednesday to make public the decisions taken by the Council of Ministers on June 28.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Karki, who is also the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, shared that the cabinet decided to approve the Performance Contract Guidelines, 2079. He said that the decision was taken for land acquisition for the tower of Birgunj-Simara-Pokhariya transmission line and to designate the authority to carry out preliminary action towards that end. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the government also decided to acquire land for the improvement, upgrading and expansion of transmission line and sub-stations in the Kathmandu Valley and to designate authority for the same. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The cabinet took the decision to consult with Public Service Commission on the draft of Armed Police (Second Amendment) Regulations-2079 and to allow the use of forest area for 220-KV transmission line of the Madhya-Bhotekoshi Hydropower Project. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson Karki added the meeting decided to form talks team for making carbon emission reduction procurement agreement, to allow the use of national forest area for the construction of Bhedetar Sky Walk and to remove trees for the construction of the Mahakali bridge. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15274', 'image' => '20220630025532_goldmedal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 14:54:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15532', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Airline Companies Start Parking Aircraft outside Kathmandu', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: Domestic airline companies have started making their first flights from half a dozen airports other than the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) from Tuesday morning (June 28).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 30: Domestic airline companies have started making their first flights from half a dozen airports other than the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) from Tuesday morning (June 28). The airlines companies that were reluctant to park their aircraft outside the TIA for night stop have approved new flight schedules and have also started the first flight from their new bases.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) had instructed the companies to pick up eight airports outside Kathmandu to start the first flight from the morning of June 28. TIA spokesperson Teknath Sitaula said that all the nine airlines have already approved the flight schedule and night parking at the designated airports.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> He stated that the directive of CAAN has finally been implemented. He added that the parking problem at the domestic airport and air security is bound to improve along with this new arrangement. According to the number of aircraft they have, all the airlines will keep 33 percent of the planes at the designated airports. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Sitaula, Buddha Air has the highest number of flights with many fixed-wing aircraft. The company has 15 aircraft including ATRs.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The company's communications manager Dipendra Kumar Karna said the aircraft were sent to various airports on Monday night for night parking. He said that Buddha Air made its first flights from five different airports (Dhangadhi, Pokhara, Bhairahawa, Janakpur and Simara) on Tuesday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Yeti Airlines’ spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula said that the company has made Nepalgunj and Biratnagar as their new bases for the time being.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN had instructed the companies to set up night bases outside the Kathmandu valley, but the aircraft of those companies are allowed to take off and land in Kathmandu. However, night parking of certain number of aircraft is not allowed. Although the parking capacity of TIA's domestic airport is 17, more than 35 aircrafts were being parked at the airport.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN has designated airports of Chandragadhi, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Simara, Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa, Dhangadhi and Kathmandu as bases on the basis of AOC for operating the aircraft.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-07-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15273', 'image' => '20220630032136_airraft.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 15:20:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15530', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tender to Export 200 MW of Electricity to India Scrapped', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has canceled the tender called to sell 200 MW of electricity to India as it could not get the price for the electricity as per the expectations.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 30: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has canceled the tender called to sell 200 MW of electricity to India as it could not get the price for the electricity as per the expectations. Six Indian companies involved in trading electricity had submitted proposals for the tender. However, the NEA stated that the tender was canceled as the proposed rates were not satisfactory.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA is currently selling electricity in the Indian open market at Rs 19.20 per unit (INR 12). However, the companies participating in the tender offered a maximum of Rs 7.77 per unit (INR 4.86), which is lower than the average selling rate of NEA. The average selling rate in Nepal is Rs 10 per unit. NEA canceled the tender after the Indian companies did not come up with a satisfactory proposals of purchase rate. NEA is getting good price of electricity due to the ongoing energy crisis in India. At the same time, NEA says, the proposals came from the Indian companies at very low rates.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Executive Director of NEA, Kulman Ghising confirmed that the tender called for the purpose of selling electricity in India has been canceled. “We did not get expected price from the Indian companies, so the tender had to be canceled. Now, electricity will be sold in the Indian open market,”</span></span> said Ghising.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA had invited tenders in April to sell 200 MW of electricity to India for four and a half months of rainy season (July 1 to mid-November). Hydropower projects produce electricity in full capacity during the rainy season. They generate more than 2200 MW of electricity in the rainy season. However, the peak demand here is around 1600 MW. Accordingly, more than 600 MW of extra electricity is generated during this period.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA has been selling 364 MW of the surplus electricity at competitive rates in the Indian open market. India allowed NEA to sell 364 MW of electricity from six projects in Nepal in its market, which NEA has been selling in the Indian open market accordingly.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Besides, NEA failed to get permission to sell additional electricity in India despite seeking permission for it. There is no guarantee when the permission will be granted. In such a case, NEA tried to sell 200 MW through tender considering the increasing demand for electricity in India.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA said that the surplus electricity will probably be sold in the open market of India as well.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Despite getting permission for selling 364 MW of electricity, more than 400 MW is being sold in India during off hours. It also has a fair price. According to NEA, the tender was canceled due to the same reason.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Manikaran Power Limited of India, which participated in the tender bid, offered to buy 100 MW of electricity at the rates of Rs 7.77 (INR 4.85) and Rs 5.88 (INR 3.68). In addition, NTPC offered to buy 200 MW at Rs 6.88 (INR 4.3). Similarly, Arunachal Power Limited offered to buy 80 MW at Rs 6.73 (INR 4.21) and PTC Limited offered to buy 200 MW at Rs 6.62 (INR 4.14).</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Tata Power Trading offered to buy 50 MW at Rs 5.47 (INR 3.42) and Create Power Pvt. Ltd. offered to buy 100 MW at Rs 6.25 (INR 3.91). Similarly, Repex Energy submitted a proposal to purchase 50 MW of electricity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Earlier, NEA had been exporting electricity to India in the form of power exchange or energy banking. NEA invited tenders to export electricity to India commercially for the first time. However, this attempt failed. NEA has been selling electricity commercially in the Indian open market since last May.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15272', 'image' => '20220630020429_Transmission.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 14:03:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15529', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Construction of Nijgadh Int’l Airport Possible at Alternative Site: Full Text of SC Verdict', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The Supreme Court has made public the full text of its May 26 verdict over a case involving the proposed construction of Nijgadh International Airport.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The Supreme Court has made public the full text of its May 26 verdict over a case involving the proposed construction of Nijgadh International Airport. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A full bench of Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Prakash Man Singh Raut and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma has given differing views relating to the case. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Justices Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Prakash Man Singh Raut have ruled that the airport should not be built at the site, while Justices Harikrishna Karki and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma have said that the construction of the airport can be carried out at an alternative site after conducting an environmental impact assessment.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the opinion of the three judges, the work of construction of the airport has been annulled by a certiorari order as government's work on the airport in Nijgadh of Bara district so far was found to be flawed. "We should not ignore or underestimate the importance of protecting the environment while carrying such large construction,” reads the full text. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although it is natural to have some environmental damage during development works, it is mentioned that adequate alternative measures should be taken to minimize such damage as much as possible. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the full text released on Wednesday also states that the airport could be constructed at an alternative place by carrying out the environmental impact assessment of the site objectively and logically with regard to the suitability of airport construction in accordance with the due legal procedures. The construction of the airport should be carried in a location that is technically suitable and with minimal environmental damage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the opinion of Justices Hari Krishna Karki and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, the Nijgadh International Airport could be constructed in government-owned vacant land by adding private land adjacent to the proposed construction site south of Nijgadh in Bara district or elsewhere. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> If it is not found suitable for the construction of the airport due to technical or other reasons, the proposed area should be re-assessed as per the law and the environmental impact assessment should be done. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the full text says that forest area should not be used for the establishment and expansion of the proposed airport city during the construction of the airport. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15271', 'image' => '20220630123356_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 12:32:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15528', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Coronavirus Cases on the Rise', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing in the country in the last few days. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing in the country in the last few days. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 62 new cases of coronavirus were detected on Wednesday against 44 on Tuesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Spokesperson of the Health Ministry, Dr Sangeeta Kaushal Mishra, the latest number of coronavirus cases was confirmed from 1,620 tests. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Kathmandu district recorded 39 new cases of coronavirus while six cases of coronavirus were detected in Lalitpur. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Mishra shared that the country has 261 active cases of coronavirus. A total of 19 people recovered from the virus on Wednesday. With this, number of people recovered from the virus has reached 967,445 so far. The recovery rate is 98.9 per cent. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, a total of 184,545 people received vaccine against coronavirus on Wednesday. The ministry administrated vaccine against coronavirus to children from five years to 12 years from June 23-29. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15270', 'image' => '20220630115224_health-ministry.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 11:51:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15527', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Marks National Paddy Day amid Scarcity of Chemical Fertilizers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Despite its failure to provide chemical fertilizers to farmers on time, the government on Wednesday observed the National Paddy Day with the slogan of paddy import substitution by increasing production within the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">June 29: Despite its failure to provide chemical fertilizers to farmers on time, the government on Wednesday observed the National Paddy Day with the slogan of paddy import substitution by increasing production within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government marked the 19th National Paddy Day on June 29 this year. This day is observed every year on the 15th day of the third month of the Nepali calendar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, the 19th National Paddy Day and Plantation Festival, 2079 is being celebrated under the slogan 'Utilization of Biodiversity in Paddy Crops, Support to Import Substitution'.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had announced import substitution of 30 percent while unveiling the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The government has adopted the same policy in agriculture, e specially paddy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However popular the slogan might be, the government has not been able to supply fertilizer to the farmers during the peak season of planting paddy. The farmers are forced to begin planting paddy amid scarcity of fertilizer. They have used potassium in some places due to lack of urea while others have used manure prepared from cow dung. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stakeholders say that it is not appropriate for the government to celebrate the National Paddy Day with the slogan of import substitution when the farmers across the country are facing acute shortage of fertilizers. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15269', 'image' => '20220629093516_istockphoto-835478970-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 21:34:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15526', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CAAN gets Permission to Cut Trees of Rithepani Hill', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has reached an understanding with the Department of Forest and Land Conservation for clearing trees of Rithepani hill', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has reached an understanding with the Department of Forest and Land Conservation for clearing trees of Rithepani hill, which has been obstructing flights at Pokhara Regional International Airport since a long time.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The two government bodies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard, allowing the CAAN to downsize the hill which has been causing problems in take-off and landing of aircraft at the airport which is being upgraded with an investment of Rs 18 billion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN spokesperson Jagannath Niraula broke the news on Tuesday after signing the agreement. Deputy Director General of the Department of Forest and Land Conservation Nawaraj Pudasaini on behalf of the department and Hansraj Pandey on behalf of CAAN signed the MoU on Tuesday in the presence of Director General of the department Rajendra KC.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Niraula said that it would take about five months to cut down the trees. About 97 percent work of the airport is already completed. The hill has been reportedly obstructing international flights. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">After the agreement, the hill will be downsized and after some time, calibration flight and test flights will be conducted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Forests and Environment had approved the supplementary environmental impact assessment report in May.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Airport chief Binesh Munakarmi informed that one side of the hill needs to be reduced by 40 meters and the other side by 12.5 meters. The hill lies towards the east of the airport.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The total cost of upgrading the airport has been projected to cost Rs 22 billion while Rs 5 billion has been spend on land acquisition.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The construction of the vital infrastructure of the airport has been completed. According to Munankarmi, construction of 14 buildings is already completed. Aprons, taxi-way and runways have been already constructed. Cargo, hangar, terminal and other buildings are among the 14 buildings that have been constructed so far. According to him, just the beautification and finishing works are left.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Initiated in 2010, this airport of national pride was said to be completed in 4 years. However, the loan agreement was signed between the Government of Nepal and China only in February, 2016, with the target to complete it by 2020. The project deadline was extended after the construction works could not be completed on time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'CAAN, aviation, permission, airport, Pokhara, Rithepani, hill, construction, infrastructure, obstruction, flight, landing, take off, department, aviation', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15268', 'image' => '20220629072503_Pokhara-Airporta.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 19:24:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15525', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Production of 200 Industries Halted due to Floods', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Heavy rainfall on Tuesday flooded 200 industries in the Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: Heavy rainfall on Tuesday flooded 200 industries in the Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor. Although the flood water has not caused much damage yet, production has come to a halt. According to Chudamani Bhattarai, director general of the Industry Association Morang, production has been affected due to inundation of around 200 industries in Budhi Ganga and Katahari rural municipalities.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Industries in the Budhi Ganga Rural Municipality and its nearby areas get inundated every year </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">due to the lack of drainage while constructing a 6-lane road in the area.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, retaining walls set up on both sides of an under-construction road in Katahari Rural Municipality has prevented the rainwater from flowing into the river and has instead entered into the industries.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Bhattarai said that the industries that had lost millions of rupees due to the unseasonal floods last October are facing floods again.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Even though the water inside the industry did not cause much damage, more than 200 industries did not come into operation due to problems power circuit and lack of proper working condition.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is said that the flood of October had caused damages worth Rs 2.46 billion to 300 industries. Bhattarai said that no concrete steps have been taken to control the floods even after informing the concerned bodies of the government.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, 40 families have been displaced in Biratnagar and the victims have been shifted to safer places after the flood waters entered various settlements. Likewise, twenty-five households have been displaced due to the flooding of Singhiya Khola in Hatkhola of Biratnagar Metropolitan City-8. Fifteen families of Ward No. 2 have been displaced due to the same reason. Morang Police Spokesperson DSP Deepak Shrestha informed that 60 households have been displaced in Khartol of Katahari Rural Municipality-1. Eight families have been displaced in Belbari-6 due to the floods of Kharkhola.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the police, the emergency room of Birat Teaching Hospital at Budhiganga-2 has been closed due to flooding. A body of a man was found in Gachhiya river on Tuesday morning. Due to the rain on Monday night, the water levels in rivers of Jhapa, Sunsari and Morang rivers have risen and the settlements have been inundated.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The local administration has decided to shut down schools in Biratnagar for three days as there is no place to keep the people displaced by the floods. Chief of the Biratnagar Metropolitan City Nagesh Koirala informed that the decision was taken at an emergency meeting due to lack of space for the displaced.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Many people have been displaced by the floods and there is no place to keep them," Koirala said. "We have decided to give them three days off from school to accommodate the victims." </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'production, industries, halted, flood, unseasonal, rainfall, river, Biratnagar', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15267', 'image' => '20220629055115_Industries.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 17:50:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15524', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Govt to Set up a Company to Build Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with Domestic Investment', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The government has finally decided to build the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with domestic investment.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The government has finally decided to build the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with domestic investment. In this regard, the government is planning to set up a company to initiate the construction of the national pride project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A meeting of the cabinet held on Tuesday agreed in principle to endorse the proposal forwarded by the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation to build the project with domestic investment and also to establish a company for the construction of the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The project was halted for a long time as the government was not able to take a concrete decision on whether to construct the hydropower project with a total capacity of 1,200 MW with domestic investment or hand it over to a foreign company.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to a minister who attended the cabinet meeting, the government has taken the decision to establish the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Development Company Limited to undertake the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In 2014, a French company had prepared its detailed project report and submitted it to the government. The government has so far distributed compensation worth Rs 40 billion to those affected by the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has already collected more than Rs 70 billion by levying infrastructure tax for such projects. However, NOC has stopped collecting tax under this heading recently.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The project, which will affect about 50,000 people in the former 25 VDCs of Dhading and Gorkha, is also considered important for Nepal's energy security.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal, while replying to a question raised by the lawmakers on the Appropriation Bill for the upcoming fiscal year in the National Assembly on Monday, informed that the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project is being constructed in a company model.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The board of directors of the company will have representatives from the government including one secretary from the Ministry of Energy, one Gazetted First Class Officer each from the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance, an executive director of Nepal Electricity Authority and an independent operator. One woman representative has been made mandatory for independent management of the company.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The company's authorised capital will be equal to Rs 60 billion. The capital has been divided into a total of 600 million ordinary shares at Rs 100 per share.</span></span> <span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Finance will have a share equal to 25 per cent of the company’s total shares or 150 million units. Similarly, the Ministry of Energy will own 40 per cent of the shares or 240 million lots.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA will have a 14 per cent share that means 84 million units. Similarly, 10 per cent of the locals will get 60 million units of shares, and the general public will be eligible to apply for other 60 million units of shares.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15266', 'image' => '20220629022834_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 14:27:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15523', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Gold Dealers Demand Laws Related to Gold and Silver Business', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Federation of Gold and Silver Dealers Association of Nepal has demanded for relevant laws related to gold and silver business. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The Federation of Gold and Silver Dealers Association of Nepal has demanded for relevant laws related to gold and silver business. A delegation of the federation made such demand to the parliamentary committee on Industry, Commerce and Supplies. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The federation argued that it is necessary to formulate necessary laws in this regard as there is no clear law for gold and silver business.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The delegation led by president of the federation Manik Ratna Shakya called on the committee chairperson Bimal Srivastav and other lawmakers to take initiative for making relevant laws. During the meeting, office bearers of the federation also suggested the committee about the issues that need to be included in the law.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Businessmen affiliated to this sector have been complaining about the lack of clear laws related to the operation of gold and silver business. Officials of the federation complained that the concerned bodies are constantly ignoring their appeal despite repeated request for new and relevant laws.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15265', 'image' => '20220629015138_goldee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 13:50:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15522', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Street Food Banned in Kathmandu', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has banned the sale of food in the streets effective from Tuesday (June 28).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has banned the sale of food in the streets effective from Tuesday (June 28). The KMC stated that it took this step to control the spread of cholera in the capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As the number of cholera patients has been increasing in the Kathmandu Valley recently, the sale and distribution of food items that involves using water has been banned. The KMC has warned of action against those who disobey the order. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chief of the Health Department of the metropolis, Balram Tripathi, shared that the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control has been requested to check the level of food hygiene in hotels and restaurants. Likewise, the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited has been requested to look into the condition of water pipeline and sewerage system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, the urban health clinic and urban health promotion center have been kept in a state of readiness so that there is no shortage of oral rehydration solution such as Jeevan Jal and water purification tablets. The KMC has brought its hotline telephone number 1180 in operation 24 hours a day from Monday for any query related to cholera. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'street, food, KMC, Kathmandu, ban, cholera, hotline', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15264', 'image' => '20220629123713_f71e8c7ad3f2367f707da3cde4b1fbfd.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 12:36:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15521', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NCC Urges Australia to Invest in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has urged Australia to invest in Nepal confidently as it has already ensured policy-level reforms in the field of foreign investment. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 29: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has urged Australia to invest in Nepal confidently as it has already ensured policy-level reforms in the field of foreign investment. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a recent meeting Australia’s ambassador to Nepal, Felicity Volk, a delegation of NCC urged the Australian envoy to invest in Nepal’s hydropower sector, forests, tourism, agriculture and small industries.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting held on the occasion of the 60 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, Malla said that partnership from both the government and private sector was necessary for further strengthening the relations of Nepal and Australia.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that Australia has been helping Nepal in forest conservation since a long time, Malla expressed his belief that this initiative would get continuity in the future as well.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NCC President Rajendra Malla sought Australia’s help to promote industries involved in processing herbs and mining in the international market. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“Australia has invested heavily in many countries but its investment in Nepal is negligible,” said Malla, adding, “We would like to urge Australia to invest in Nepal’s hydropower sector taking into consideration the potential of electricity export to the Indian and Bangladeshi market.”</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In response, Ambassador Volk recalled 60 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries, and said that 50,000 Nepali students reach Australia each year on a student visa. She assured that the Australian government has given high priority to their education enhancement and career opportunities. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'investment, hydropower, Australia, forest conservation, Felicity, Volk, ambassador', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15263', 'image' => '20220629113757_RK_KTM-(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 11:37:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15520', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Spending Unnecessarily Despite Claiming Austerity Measures', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 28: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma replaced the ordinance budget of former minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel last August', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 28: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma replaced the ordinance budget of former minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel last August with the claim of cutting 10 percent expenditure under various headings including the budget for meeting allowance, fuel, maintenance, staff training, skill development and public awareness, etc.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Sharma also removed controversial and unreliable projects in the previous government's budget while ruthlessly cutting off the constituency development programmes and plans of the top leaders of the CPN-UML. However, Sharma has not been able to give continuity to the initiative at present. It has been speculated that his intention may have been not only to cut unnecessary expenditure but also to gain popularity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The headings under which he had cut the budget during last fiscal year has been included this time with additional amount allocated under the same headings. However, the need for cost reduction is greater now than it was before. The government can cut budgets on dozens of titles in order to reduce the current expenditure. But instead of doing so, Finance Minister Sharma seems to have allocated extra money.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For the current fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs 840 million for the foreign travel expenses of the government employees. But for the upcoming fiscal year, Finance Minister Sharma increased the budget under this heading to Rs 872.1 million. The move is against the government's policy of not allowing employees to travel abroad except for much-needed work, citing pressure on foreign exchange reserves.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government also increased the budget for other allowances received by the officials of various commissions and bodies. Government allocated Rs 394.3 million for the current year, which has been increased to Rs 430 million for the next fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">There are three other types of allowances including meeting allowance of office bearers. Employees receive 10 types of allowances in addition to salary. The government also seems to have increased the budget for fuel. In the current fiscal year, Rs 2.48 billion was allocated for the fuel expenses of the employees, but it has been increased by Rs 400 million to Rs 2.88 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The fuel budget of the office bearers has been increased from Rs 120 million to Rs 140 million. The budget of Rs 1.65 billion allocated for vehicle maintenance in the current fiscal year has been increased to Rs 1.68 billion for the next fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Rs. 815 million has been allocated for the purchase of vehicles under the heading of development expenditure. The budget includes various headings from development expenditure to office materials to administrative facilities. In the budget for the upcoming fiscal year presented by Finance Minister Sharma on May 29, no budget has been cut for any of the headings on trainings, seminars, visits and monitoring.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Looking at the budget allocation, it seems that the government's announcement to cut current expenditure by 10 percent this year and 15 percent next year is just to gain popularity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-28', 'modified' => '2022-06-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15262', 'image' => '20220628061840_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-28 18:17:04', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15534', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Two more Int'l Airliners to Operate Regular Flights from TIA ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: Two more international airlines are ready to operate regular flights from Tribhuvan International Airport. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: Two more international airlines are ready to operate regular flights from Tribhuvan International Airport. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thai Smile Airways of Thailand is making its flight from July 1 and Sri Lankan Airlines of Sri Lanka from July 6, according to the TIA. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thai Smile Airways is operating flight from TIA for the first time while Sri Lankan Airlines is resuming its flight, which was closed due to COVID-19 pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Jagannath Niraula, said Thai Smile Airways will be operating direct flights between Kathmandu and Bangkok from Friday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the CAAN, the Thai company has received permission to operate flights on all seven days a week. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Sri Lankan Airlines has got permission to operate seven regular flights in a week. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Twenty-four airline companies including two Nepali airliners have now been operating international flights from TIA. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15276', 'image' => '20220630060106_Thai-SMILE-Airways-1-916x514.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 18:00:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15533', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Regional Trade and Connectivity in South Asia Gets More Than US$1 Billion Boost from World Bank', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The World Bank has approved US$1.03 billion of financing to help improve regional trade in Bangladesh and Nepal by reducing trade and transport costs and transit time along the regional corridors.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">June 30: The World Bank has approved US$1.03 billion of financing to help improve regional trade in Bangladesh and Nepal by reducing trade and transport costs and transit time along the regional corridors.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the World Bank, the first phase of the Accelerating Transport and Trade Connectivity in Eastern South Asia (ACCESS) Programme will help the respective governments address the key barriers to regional trade ─ manual and paper-based trade processes, inadequate transport and trade infrastructure, and restrictive trade and transport regulations and processes.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Issuing a statement on Tuesday, the World Bank said that the Phase 1 programme will help replace lengthy manual and paper-based trade processes with digitized automated solutions in Bangladesh and Nepal. The automation will enable faster border crossing times and install electronic tracking of truck entry and exit, electronic queuing, and smart parking. The programme will also help improve selected road corridors and upgrade key land ports and customs infrastructure, while ensuring green and climate-resilient construction, the statement added. This will help the integration of landlocked Bhutan and Nepal with the gateway countries of Bangladesh and India, it further stated.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Regional trade offers enormous untapped potential for the countries of South Asia. Today, regional trade accounts for only 5 percent of South Asia’s total trade, while in East Asia it accounts for 50 percent,” the statement quoted Hartwig Schafer, World Bank’s vice president for South Asia, as saying. “South Asia can boost economic growth significantly and create opportunities for millions of people by increasing regional trade and connectivity.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The US$275 million ACCESS Project in Nepal will upgrade 69 km two-lane Butwal—Gorusinghe—Chanauta road along the East-West Highway to a climate-resilient four-lane highway. This is expected to reduce travel time by 30 percent, thus providing better access to India’s western seaports. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the World Bank, the project will construct market areas along the highway with dedicated spaces for women entrepreneurs and traders to ensure that women can benefit from the enhanced economic opportunities. It will also support capacity building and digital system to enhance trade and customs processes at Birgunj and Bhairahawa border points in particular. The programme will also help advance Nepal’s preparedness and subsequent implementation of the Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Nepal has large untapped potential for regional trade and exports. Low regional trade is often a result of the high cost of connectivity,” said Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank’s country director for the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. “The project will help unlock Nepal’s economic potential through better connectivity and trade, both between the provinces as well as regionally among Nepal and other countries to support a green, resilient, and inclusive development.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“It is highly critical to ensure trade growth, long-term sustainability and resilience of investments, while minimizing actual degradations on ecosystems along the Nepal’s road network, which carries 90 percent of passengers and goods movement,” said Oceane Keou, World Bank’s task team leader of the Nepal Project and co-task team leader of the programme. “The project will implement an innovative green and resilient highway corridor concept in Nepal, based on a landscape-level development approach.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In the second phase, the program will include Bhutan.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“A key focus of the ACCESS program is to support solutions that can most effectively reduce dwell times at trade gateways, which is vital to lowering trade costs. This entails greater border cooperation and coordination within and between countries, cutting down the physical inspection of goods, and simplifying regulations and processes,” said Erik Nora, World Bank’s task team leader of the program. “</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15275', 'image' => '20220630035324_World.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 15:52:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15531', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Gives Permission to Reduce the Amount of Gold used in Medals ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The government has decided to give permission to make changes in the design of medals presented to various individuals by reducing the amount of gold used in such decorations. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The government has decided to give permission to make changes in the design of medals presented to various individuals by reducing the amount of gold used in such decorations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki confirmed the decision during a press conference organized on Wednesday to make public the decisions taken by the Council of Ministers on June 28.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Karki, who is also the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, shared that the cabinet decided to approve the Performance Contract Guidelines, 2079. He said that the decision was taken for land acquisition for the tower of Birgunj-Simara-Pokhariya transmission line and to designate the authority to carry out preliminary action towards that end. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the government also decided to acquire land for the improvement, upgrading and expansion of transmission line and sub-stations in the Kathmandu Valley and to designate authority for the same. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The cabinet took the decision to consult with Public Service Commission on the draft of Armed Police (Second Amendment) Regulations-2079 and to allow the use of forest area for 220-KV transmission line of the Madhya-Bhotekoshi Hydropower Project. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson Karki added the meeting decided to form talks team for making carbon emission reduction procurement agreement, to allow the use of national forest area for the construction of Bhedetar Sky Walk and to remove trees for the construction of the Mahakali bridge. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15274', 'image' => '20220630025532_goldmedal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 14:54:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15532', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Airline Companies Start Parking Aircraft outside Kathmandu', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: Domestic airline companies have started making their first flights from half a dozen airports other than the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) from Tuesday morning (June 28).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 30: Domestic airline companies have started making their first flights from half a dozen airports other than the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) from Tuesday morning (June 28). The airlines companies that were reluctant to park their aircraft outside the TIA for night stop have approved new flight schedules and have also started the first flight from their new bases.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) had instructed the companies to pick up eight airports outside Kathmandu to start the first flight from the morning of June 28. TIA spokesperson Teknath Sitaula said that all the nine airlines have already approved the flight schedule and night parking at the designated airports.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> He stated that the directive of CAAN has finally been implemented. He added that the parking problem at the domestic airport and air security is bound to improve along with this new arrangement. According to the number of aircraft they have, all the airlines will keep 33 percent of the planes at the designated airports. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Sitaula, Buddha Air has the highest number of flights with many fixed-wing aircraft. The company has 15 aircraft including ATRs.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The company's communications manager Dipendra Kumar Karna said the aircraft were sent to various airports on Monday night for night parking. He said that Buddha Air made its first flights from five different airports (Dhangadhi, Pokhara, Bhairahawa, Janakpur and Simara) on Tuesday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Yeti Airlines’ spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula said that the company has made Nepalgunj and Biratnagar as their new bases for the time being.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN had instructed the companies to set up night bases outside the Kathmandu valley, but the aircraft of those companies are allowed to take off and land in Kathmandu. However, night parking of certain number of aircraft is not allowed. Although the parking capacity of TIA's domestic airport is 17, more than 35 aircrafts were being parked at the airport.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN has designated airports of Chandragadhi, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Simara, Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa, Dhangadhi and Kathmandu as bases on the basis of AOC for operating the aircraft.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-07-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15273', 'image' => '20220630032136_airraft.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 15:20:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15530', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tender to Export 200 MW of Electricity to India Scrapped', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has canceled the tender called to sell 200 MW of electricity to India as it could not get the price for the electricity as per the expectations.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 30: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has canceled the tender called to sell 200 MW of electricity to India as it could not get the price for the electricity as per the expectations. Six Indian companies involved in trading electricity had submitted proposals for the tender. However, the NEA stated that the tender was canceled as the proposed rates were not satisfactory.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA is currently selling electricity in the Indian open market at Rs 19.20 per unit (INR 12). However, the companies participating in the tender offered a maximum of Rs 7.77 per unit (INR 4.86), which is lower than the average selling rate of NEA. The average selling rate in Nepal is Rs 10 per unit. NEA canceled the tender after the Indian companies did not come up with a satisfactory proposals of purchase rate. NEA is getting good price of electricity due to the ongoing energy crisis in India. At the same time, NEA says, the proposals came from the Indian companies at very low rates.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Executive Director of NEA, Kulman Ghising confirmed that the tender called for the purpose of selling electricity in India has been canceled. “We did not get expected price from the Indian companies, so the tender had to be canceled. Now, electricity will be sold in the Indian open market,”</span></span> said Ghising.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA had invited tenders in April to sell 200 MW of electricity to India for four and a half months of rainy season (July 1 to mid-November). Hydropower projects produce electricity in full capacity during the rainy season. They generate more than 2200 MW of electricity in the rainy season. However, the peak demand here is around 1600 MW. Accordingly, more than 600 MW of extra electricity is generated during this period.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA has been selling 364 MW of the surplus electricity at competitive rates in the Indian open market. India allowed NEA to sell 364 MW of electricity from six projects in Nepal in its market, which NEA has been selling in the Indian open market accordingly.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Besides, NEA failed to get permission to sell additional electricity in India despite seeking permission for it. There is no guarantee when the permission will be granted. In such a case, NEA tried to sell 200 MW through tender considering the increasing demand for electricity in India.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA said that the surplus electricity will probably be sold in the open market of India as well.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Despite getting permission for selling 364 MW of electricity, more than 400 MW is being sold in India during off hours. It also has a fair price. According to NEA, the tender was canceled due to the same reason.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Manikaran Power Limited of India, which participated in the tender bid, offered to buy 100 MW of electricity at the rates of Rs 7.77 (INR 4.85) and Rs 5.88 (INR 3.68). In addition, NTPC offered to buy 200 MW at Rs 6.88 (INR 4.3). Similarly, Arunachal Power Limited offered to buy 80 MW at Rs 6.73 (INR 4.21) and PTC Limited offered to buy 200 MW at Rs 6.62 (INR 4.14).</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Tata Power Trading offered to buy 50 MW at Rs 5.47 (INR 3.42) and Create Power Pvt. Ltd. offered to buy 100 MW at Rs 6.25 (INR 3.91). Similarly, Repex Energy submitted a proposal to purchase 50 MW of electricity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Earlier, NEA had been exporting electricity to India in the form of power exchange or energy banking. NEA invited tenders to export electricity to India commercially for the first time. However, this attempt failed. NEA has been selling electricity commercially in the Indian open market since last May.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15272', 'image' => '20220630020429_Transmission.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 14:03:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15529', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Construction of Nijgadh Int’l Airport Possible at Alternative Site: Full Text of SC Verdict', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The Supreme Court has made public the full text of its May 26 verdict over a case involving the proposed construction of Nijgadh International Airport.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The Supreme Court has made public the full text of its May 26 verdict over a case involving the proposed construction of Nijgadh International Airport. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A full bench of Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Prakash Man Singh Raut and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma has given differing views relating to the case. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Justices Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Prakash Man Singh Raut have ruled that the airport should not be built at the site, while Justices Harikrishna Karki and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma have said that the construction of the airport can be carried out at an alternative site after conducting an environmental impact assessment.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the opinion of the three judges, the work of construction of the airport has been annulled by a certiorari order as government's work on the airport in Nijgadh of Bara district so far was found to be flawed. "We should not ignore or underestimate the importance of protecting the environment while carrying such large construction,” reads the full text. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although it is natural to have some environmental damage during development works, it is mentioned that adequate alternative measures should be taken to minimize such damage as much as possible. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the full text released on Wednesday also states that the airport could be constructed at an alternative place by carrying out the environmental impact assessment of the site objectively and logically with regard to the suitability of airport construction in accordance with the due legal procedures. The construction of the airport should be carried in a location that is technically suitable and with minimal environmental damage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the opinion of Justices Hari Krishna Karki and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, the Nijgadh International Airport could be constructed in government-owned vacant land by adding private land adjacent to the proposed construction site south of Nijgadh in Bara district or elsewhere. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> If it is not found suitable for the construction of the airport due to technical or other reasons, the proposed area should be re-assessed as per the law and the environmental impact assessment should be done. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the full text says that forest area should not be used for the establishment and expansion of the proposed airport city during the construction of the airport. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15271', 'image' => '20220630123356_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 12:32:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15528', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Coronavirus Cases on the Rise', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing in the country in the last few days. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing in the country in the last few days. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 62 new cases of coronavirus were detected on Wednesday against 44 on Tuesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Spokesperson of the Health Ministry, Dr Sangeeta Kaushal Mishra, the latest number of coronavirus cases was confirmed from 1,620 tests. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Kathmandu district recorded 39 new cases of coronavirus while six cases of coronavirus were detected in Lalitpur. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Mishra shared that the country has 261 active cases of coronavirus. A total of 19 people recovered from the virus on Wednesday. With this, number of people recovered from the virus has reached 967,445 so far. The recovery rate is 98.9 per cent. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, a total of 184,545 people received vaccine against coronavirus on Wednesday. The ministry administrated vaccine against coronavirus to children from five years to 12 years from June 23-29. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15270', 'image' => '20220630115224_health-ministry.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 11:51:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15527', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Marks National Paddy Day amid Scarcity of Chemical Fertilizers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Despite its failure to provide chemical fertilizers to farmers on time, the government on Wednesday observed the National Paddy Day with the slogan of paddy import substitution by increasing production within the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">June 29: Despite its failure to provide chemical fertilizers to farmers on time, the government on Wednesday observed the National Paddy Day with the slogan of paddy import substitution by increasing production within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government marked the 19th National Paddy Day on June 29 this year. This day is observed every year on the 15th day of the third month of the Nepali calendar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, the 19th National Paddy Day and Plantation Festival, 2079 is being celebrated under the slogan 'Utilization of Biodiversity in Paddy Crops, Support to Import Substitution'.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had announced import substitution of 30 percent while unveiling the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The government has adopted the same policy in agriculture, e specially paddy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However popular the slogan might be, the government has not been able to supply fertilizer to the farmers during the peak season of planting paddy. The farmers are forced to begin planting paddy amid scarcity of fertilizer. They have used potassium in some places due to lack of urea while others have used manure prepared from cow dung. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stakeholders say that it is not appropriate for the government to celebrate the National Paddy Day with the slogan of import substitution when the farmers across the country are facing acute shortage of fertilizers. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15269', 'image' => '20220629093516_istockphoto-835478970-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 21:34:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15526', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CAAN gets Permission to Cut Trees of Rithepani Hill', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has reached an understanding with the Department of Forest and Land Conservation for clearing trees of Rithepani hill', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has reached an understanding with the Department of Forest and Land Conservation for clearing trees of Rithepani hill, which has been obstructing flights at Pokhara Regional International Airport since a long time.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The two government bodies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard, allowing the CAAN to downsize the hill which has been causing problems in take-off and landing of aircraft at the airport which is being upgraded with an investment of Rs 18 billion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN spokesperson Jagannath Niraula broke the news on Tuesday after signing the agreement. Deputy Director General of the Department of Forest and Land Conservation Nawaraj Pudasaini on behalf of the department and Hansraj Pandey on behalf of CAAN signed the MoU on Tuesday in the presence of Director General of the department Rajendra KC.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Niraula said that it would take about five months to cut down the trees. About 97 percent work of the airport is already completed. The hill has been reportedly obstructing international flights. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">After the agreement, the hill will be downsized and after some time, calibration flight and test flights will be conducted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Forests and Environment had approved the supplementary environmental impact assessment report in May.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Airport chief Binesh Munakarmi informed that one side of the hill needs to be reduced by 40 meters and the other side by 12.5 meters. The hill lies towards the east of the airport.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The total cost of upgrading the airport has been projected to cost Rs 22 billion while Rs 5 billion has been spend on land acquisition.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The construction of the vital infrastructure of the airport has been completed. According to Munankarmi, construction of 14 buildings is already completed. Aprons, taxi-way and runways have been already constructed. Cargo, hangar, terminal and other buildings are among the 14 buildings that have been constructed so far. According to him, just the beautification and finishing works are left.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Initiated in 2010, this airport of national pride was said to be completed in 4 years. However, the loan agreement was signed between the Government of Nepal and China only in February, 2016, with the target to complete it by 2020. The project deadline was extended after the construction works could not be completed on time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'CAAN, aviation, permission, airport, Pokhara, Rithepani, hill, construction, infrastructure, obstruction, flight, landing, take off, department, aviation', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15268', 'image' => '20220629072503_Pokhara-Airporta.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 19:24:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15525', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Production of 200 Industries Halted due to Floods', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Heavy rainfall on Tuesday flooded 200 industries in the Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: Heavy rainfall on Tuesday flooded 200 industries in the Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor. Although the flood water has not caused much damage yet, production has come to a halt. According to Chudamani Bhattarai, director general of the Industry Association Morang, production has been affected due to inundation of around 200 industries in Budhi Ganga and Katahari rural municipalities.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Industries in the Budhi Ganga Rural Municipality and its nearby areas get inundated every year </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">due to the lack of drainage while constructing a 6-lane road in the area.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, retaining walls set up on both sides of an under-construction road in Katahari Rural Municipality has prevented the rainwater from flowing into the river and has instead entered into the industries.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Bhattarai said that the industries that had lost millions of rupees due to the unseasonal floods last October are facing floods again.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Even though the water inside the industry did not cause much damage, more than 200 industries did not come into operation due to problems power circuit and lack of proper working condition.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is said that the flood of October had caused damages worth Rs 2.46 billion to 300 industries. Bhattarai said that no concrete steps have been taken to control the floods even after informing the concerned bodies of the government.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, 40 families have been displaced in Biratnagar and the victims have been shifted to safer places after the flood waters entered various settlements. Likewise, twenty-five households have been displaced due to the flooding of Singhiya Khola in Hatkhola of Biratnagar Metropolitan City-8. Fifteen families of Ward No. 2 have been displaced due to the same reason. Morang Police Spokesperson DSP Deepak Shrestha informed that 60 households have been displaced in Khartol of Katahari Rural Municipality-1. Eight families have been displaced in Belbari-6 due to the floods of Kharkhola.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the police, the emergency room of Birat Teaching Hospital at Budhiganga-2 has been closed due to flooding. A body of a man was found in Gachhiya river on Tuesday morning. Due to the rain on Monday night, the water levels in rivers of Jhapa, Sunsari and Morang rivers have risen and the settlements have been inundated.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The local administration has decided to shut down schools in Biratnagar for three days as there is no place to keep the people displaced by the floods. Chief of the Biratnagar Metropolitan City Nagesh Koirala informed that the decision was taken at an emergency meeting due to lack of space for the displaced.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Many people have been displaced by the floods and there is no place to keep them," Koirala said. "We have decided to give them three days off from school to accommodate the victims." </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'production, industries, halted, flood, unseasonal, rainfall, river, Biratnagar', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15267', 'image' => '20220629055115_Industries.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 17:50:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15524', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Govt to Set up a Company to Build Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with Domestic Investment', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The government has finally decided to build the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with domestic investment.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The government has finally decided to build the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with domestic investment. In this regard, the government is planning to set up a company to initiate the construction of the national pride project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A meeting of the cabinet held on Tuesday agreed in principle to endorse the proposal forwarded by the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation to build the project with domestic investment and also to establish a company for the construction of the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The project was halted for a long time as the government was not able to take a concrete decision on whether to construct the hydropower project with a total capacity of 1,200 MW with domestic investment or hand it over to a foreign company.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to a minister who attended the cabinet meeting, the government has taken the decision to establish the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Development Company Limited to undertake the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In 2014, a French company had prepared its detailed project report and submitted it to the government. The government has so far distributed compensation worth Rs 40 billion to those affected by the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has already collected more than Rs 70 billion by levying infrastructure tax for such projects. However, NOC has stopped collecting tax under this heading recently.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The project, which will affect about 50,000 people in the former 25 VDCs of Dhading and Gorkha, is also considered important for Nepal's energy security.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal, while replying to a question raised by the lawmakers on the Appropriation Bill for the upcoming fiscal year in the National Assembly on Monday, informed that the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project is being constructed in a company model.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The board of directors of the company will have representatives from the government including one secretary from the Ministry of Energy, one Gazetted First Class Officer each from the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance, an executive director of Nepal Electricity Authority and an independent operator. One woman representative has been made mandatory for independent management of the company.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The company's authorised capital will be equal to Rs 60 billion. The capital has been divided into a total of 600 million ordinary shares at Rs 100 per share.</span></span> <span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Finance will have a share equal to 25 per cent of the company’s total shares or 150 million units. Similarly, the Ministry of Energy will own 40 per cent of the shares or 240 million lots.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA will have a 14 per cent share that means 84 million units. Similarly, 10 per cent of the locals will get 60 million units of shares, and the general public will be eligible to apply for other 60 million units of shares.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15266', 'image' => '20220629022834_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 14:27:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15523', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Gold Dealers Demand Laws Related to Gold and Silver Business', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Federation of Gold and Silver Dealers Association of Nepal has demanded for relevant laws related to gold and silver business. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The Federation of Gold and Silver Dealers Association of Nepal has demanded for relevant laws related to gold and silver business. A delegation of the federation made such demand to the parliamentary committee on Industry, Commerce and Supplies. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The federation argued that it is necessary to formulate necessary laws in this regard as there is no clear law for gold and silver business.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The delegation led by president of the federation Manik Ratna Shakya called on the committee chairperson Bimal Srivastav and other lawmakers to take initiative for making relevant laws. During the meeting, office bearers of the federation also suggested the committee about the issues that need to be included in the law.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Businessmen affiliated to this sector have been complaining about the lack of clear laws related to the operation of gold and silver business. Officials of the federation complained that the concerned bodies are constantly ignoring their appeal despite repeated request for new and relevant laws.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15265', 'image' => '20220629015138_goldee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 13:50:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15522', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Street Food Banned in Kathmandu', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has banned the sale of food in the streets effective from Tuesday (June 28).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has banned the sale of food in the streets effective from Tuesday (June 28). The KMC stated that it took this step to control the spread of cholera in the capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As the number of cholera patients has been increasing in the Kathmandu Valley recently, the sale and distribution of food items that involves using water has been banned. The KMC has warned of action against those who disobey the order. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chief of the Health Department of the metropolis, Balram Tripathi, shared that the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control has been requested to check the level of food hygiene in hotels and restaurants. Likewise, the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited has been requested to look into the condition of water pipeline and sewerage system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, the urban health clinic and urban health promotion center have been kept in a state of readiness so that there is no shortage of oral rehydration solution such as Jeevan Jal and water purification tablets. The KMC has brought its hotline telephone number 1180 in operation 24 hours a day from Monday for any query related to cholera. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'street, food, KMC, Kathmandu, ban, cholera, hotline', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15264', 'image' => '20220629123713_f71e8c7ad3f2367f707da3cde4b1fbfd.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 12:36:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15521', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NCC Urges Australia to Invest in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has urged Australia to invest in Nepal confidently as it has already ensured policy-level reforms in the field of foreign investment. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 29: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has urged Australia to invest in Nepal confidently as it has already ensured policy-level reforms in the field of foreign investment. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a recent meeting Australia’s ambassador to Nepal, Felicity Volk, a delegation of NCC urged the Australian envoy to invest in Nepal’s hydropower sector, forests, tourism, agriculture and small industries.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting held on the occasion of the 60 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, Malla said that partnership from both the government and private sector was necessary for further strengthening the relations of Nepal and Australia.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that Australia has been helping Nepal in forest conservation since a long time, Malla expressed his belief that this initiative would get continuity in the future as well.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NCC President Rajendra Malla sought Australia’s help to promote industries involved in processing herbs and mining in the international market. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“Australia has invested heavily in many countries but its investment in Nepal is negligible,” said Malla, adding, “We would like to urge Australia to invest in Nepal’s hydropower sector taking into consideration the potential of electricity export to the Indian and Bangladeshi market.”</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In response, Ambassador Volk recalled 60 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries, and said that 50,000 Nepali students reach Australia each year on a student visa. She assured that the Australian government has given high priority to their education enhancement and career opportunities. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'investment, hydropower, Australia, forest conservation, Felicity, Volk, ambassador', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15263', 'image' => '20220629113757_RK_KTM-(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 11:37:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15520', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Spending Unnecessarily Despite Claiming Austerity Measures', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 28: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma replaced the ordinance budget of former minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel last August', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 28: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma replaced the ordinance budget of former minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel last August with the claim of cutting 10 percent expenditure under various headings including the budget for meeting allowance, fuel, maintenance, staff training, skill development and public awareness, etc.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Sharma also removed controversial and unreliable projects in the previous government's budget while ruthlessly cutting off the constituency development programmes and plans of the top leaders of the CPN-UML. However, Sharma has not been able to give continuity to the initiative at present. It has been speculated that his intention may have been not only to cut unnecessary expenditure but also to gain popularity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The headings under which he had cut the budget during last fiscal year has been included this time with additional amount allocated under the same headings. However, the need for cost reduction is greater now than it was before. The government can cut budgets on dozens of titles in order to reduce the current expenditure. But instead of doing so, Finance Minister Sharma seems to have allocated extra money.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For the current fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs 840 million for the foreign travel expenses of the government employees. But for the upcoming fiscal year, Finance Minister Sharma increased the budget under this heading to Rs 872.1 million. The move is against the government's policy of not allowing employees to travel abroad except for much-needed work, citing pressure on foreign exchange reserves.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government also increased the budget for other allowances received by the officials of various commissions and bodies. Government allocated Rs 394.3 million for the current year, which has been increased to Rs 430 million for the next fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">There are three other types of allowances including meeting allowance of office bearers. Employees receive 10 types of allowances in addition to salary. The government also seems to have increased the budget for fuel. In the current fiscal year, Rs 2.48 billion was allocated for the fuel expenses of the employees, but it has been increased by Rs 400 million to Rs 2.88 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The fuel budget of the office bearers has been increased from Rs 120 million to Rs 140 million. The budget of Rs 1.65 billion allocated for vehicle maintenance in the current fiscal year has been increased to Rs 1.68 billion for the next fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Rs. 815 million has been allocated for the purchase of vehicles under the heading of development expenditure. The budget includes various headings from development expenditure to office materials to administrative facilities. In the budget for the upcoming fiscal year presented by Finance Minister Sharma on May 29, no budget has been cut for any of the headings on trainings, seminars, visits and monitoring.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Looking at the budget allocation, it seems that the government's announcement to cut current expenditure by 10 percent this year and 15 percent next year is just to gain popularity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-28', 'modified' => '2022-06-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15262', 'image' => '20220628061840_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-28 18:17:04', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: Two more international airlines are ready to operate regular flights from Tribhuvan International Airport. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thai Smile Airways of Thailand is making its flight from July 1 and Sri Lankan Airlines of Sri Lanka from July 6, according to the TIA. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thai Smile Airways is operating flight from TIA for the first time while Sri Lankan Airlines is resuming its flight, which was closed due to COVID-19 pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Jagannath Niraula, said Thai Smile Airways will be operating direct flights between Kathmandu and Bangkok from Friday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the CAAN, the Thai company has received permission to operate flights on all seven days a week. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Sri Lankan Airlines has got permission to operate seven regular flights in a week. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Twenty-four airline companies including two Nepali airliners have now been operating international flights from TIA. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15276', 'image' => '20220630060106_Thai-SMILE-Airways-1-916x514.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 18:00:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15533', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Regional Trade and Connectivity in South Asia Gets More Than US$1 Billion Boost from World Bank', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The World Bank has approved US$1.03 billion of financing to help improve regional trade in Bangladesh and Nepal by reducing trade and transport costs and transit time along the regional corridors.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">June 30: The World Bank has approved US$1.03 billion of financing to help improve regional trade in Bangladesh and Nepal by reducing trade and transport costs and transit time along the regional corridors.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the World Bank, the first phase of the Accelerating Transport and Trade Connectivity in Eastern South Asia (ACCESS) Programme will help the respective governments address the key barriers to regional trade ─ manual and paper-based trade processes, inadequate transport and trade infrastructure, and restrictive trade and transport regulations and processes.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Issuing a statement on Tuesday, the World Bank said that the Phase 1 programme will help replace lengthy manual and paper-based trade processes with digitized automated solutions in Bangladesh and Nepal. The automation will enable faster border crossing times and install electronic tracking of truck entry and exit, electronic queuing, and smart parking. The programme will also help improve selected road corridors and upgrade key land ports and customs infrastructure, while ensuring green and climate-resilient construction, the statement added. This will help the integration of landlocked Bhutan and Nepal with the gateway countries of Bangladesh and India, it further stated.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Regional trade offers enormous untapped potential for the countries of South Asia. Today, regional trade accounts for only 5 percent of South Asia’s total trade, while in East Asia it accounts for 50 percent,” the statement quoted Hartwig Schafer, World Bank’s vice president for South Asia, as saying. “South Asia can boost economic growth significantly and create opportunities for millions of people by increasing regional trade and connectivity.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The US$275 million ACCESS Project in Nepal will upgrade 69 km two-lane Butwal—Gorusinghe—Chanauta road along the East-West Highway to a climate-resilient four-lane highway. This is expected to reduce travel time by 30 percent, thus providing better access to India’s western seaports. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the World Bank, the project will construct market areas along the highway with dedicated spaces for women entrepreneurs and traders to ensure that women can benefit from the enhanced economic opportunities. It will also support capacity building and digital system to enhance trade and customs processes at Birgunj and Bhairahawa border points in particular. The programme will also help advance Nepal’s preparedness and subsequent implementation of the Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Nepal has large untapped potential for regional trade and exports. Low regional trade is often a result of the high cost of connectivity,” said Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank’s country director for the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. “The project will help unlock Nepal’s economic potential through better connectivity and trade, both between the provinces as well as regionally among Nepal and other countries to support a green, resilient, and inclusive development.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“It is highly critical to ensure trade growth, long-term sustainability and resilience of investments, while minimizing actual degradations on ecosystems along the Nepal’s road network, which carries 90 percent of passengers and goods movement,” said Oceane Keou, World Bank’s task team leader of the Nepal Project and co-task team leader of the programme. “The project will implement an innovative green and resilient highway corridor concept in Nepal, based on a landscape-level development approach.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In the second phase, the program will include Bhutan.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“A key focus of the ACCESS program is to support solutions that can most effectively reduce dwell times at trade gateways, which is vital to lowering trade costs. This entails greater border cooperation and coordination within and between countries, cutting down the physical inspection of goods, and simplifying regulations and processes,” said Erik Nora, World Bank’s task team leader of the program. “</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15275', 'image' => '20220630035324_World.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 15:52:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15531', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Gives Permission to Reduce the Amount of Gold used in Medals ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The government has decided to give permission to make changes in the design of medals presented to various individuals by reducing the amount of gold used in such decorations. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The government has decided to give permission to make changes in the design of medals presented to various individuals by reducing the amount of gold used in such decorations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki confirmed the decision during a press conference organized on Wednesday to make public the decisions taken by the Council of Ministers on June 28.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Karki, who is also the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, shared that the cabinet decided to approve the Performance Contract Guidelines, 2079. He said that the decision was taken for land acquisition for the tower of Birgunj-Simara-Pokhariya transmission line and to designate the authority to carry out preliminary action towards that end. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the government also decided to acquire land for the improvement, upgrading and expansion of transmission line and sub-stations in the Kathmandu Valley and to designate authority for the same. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The cabinet took the decision to consult with Public Service Commission on the draft of Armed Police (Second Amendment) Regulations-2079 and to allow the use of forest area for 220-KV transmission line of the Madhya-Bhotekoshi Hydropower Project. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson Karki added the meeting decided to form talks team for making carbon emission reduction procurement agreement, to allow the use of national forest area for the construction of Bhedetar Sky Walk and to remove trees for the construction of the Mahakali bridge. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15274', 'image' => '20220630025532_goldmedal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 14:54:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15532', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Airline Companies Start Parking Aircraft outside Kathmandu', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: Domestic airline companies have started making their first flights from half a dozen airports other than the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) from Tuesday morning (June 28).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 30: Domestic airline companies have started making their first flights from half a dozen airports other than the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) from Tuesday morning (June 28). The airlines companies that were reluctant to park their aircraft outside the TIA for night stop have approved new flight schedules and have also started the first flight from their new bases.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) had instructed the companies to pick up eight airports outside Kathmandu to start the first flight from the morning of June 28. TIA spokesperson Teknath Sitaula said that all the nine airlines have already approved the flight schedule and night parking at the designated airports.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> He stated that the directive of CAAN has finally been implemented. He added that the parking problem at the domestic airport and air security is bound to improve along with this new arrangement. According to the number of aircraft they have, all the airlines will keep 33 percent of the planes at the designated airports. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Sitaula, Buddha Air has the highest number of flights with many fixed-wing aircraft. The company has 15 aircraft including ATRs.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The company's communications manager Dipendra Kumar Karna said the aircraft were sent to various airports on Monday night for night parking. He said that Buddha Air made its first flights from five different airports (Dhangadhi, Pokhara, Bhairahawa, Janakpur and Simara) on Tuesday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Yeti Airlines’ spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula said that the company has made Nepalgunj and Biratnagar as their new bases for the time being.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN had instructed the companies to set up night bases outside the Kathmandu valley, but the aircraft of those companies are allowed to take off and land in Kathmandu. However, night parking of certain number of aircraft is not allowed. Although the parking capacity of TIA's domestic airport is 17, more than 35 aircrafts were being parked at the airport.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN has designated airports of Chandragadhi, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Simara, Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa, Dhangadhi and Kathmandu as bases on the basis of AOC for operating the aircraft.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-07-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15273', 'image' => '20220630032136_airraft.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 15:20:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15530', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tender to Export 200 MW of Electricity to India Scrapped', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has canceled the tender called to sell 200 MW of electricity to India as it could not get the price for the electricity as per the expectations.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 30: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has canceled the tender called to sell 200 MW of electricity to India as it could not get the price for the electricity as per the expectations. Six Indian companies involved in trading electricity had submitted proposals for the tender. However, the NEA stated that the tender was canceled as the proposed rates were not satisfactory.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA is currently selling electricity in the Indian open market at Rs 19.20 per unit (INR 12). However, the companies participating in the tender offered a maximum of Rs 7.77 per unit (INR 4.86), which is lower than the average selling rate of NEA. The average selling rate in Nepal is Rs 10 per unit. NEA canceled the tender after the Indian companies did not come up with a satisfactory proposals of purchase rate. NEA is getting good price of electricity due to the ongoing energy crisis in India. At the same time, NEA says, the proposals came from the Indian companies at very low rates.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Executive Director of NEA, Kulman Ghising confirmed that the tender called for the purpose of selling electricity in India has been canceled. “We did not get expected price from the Indian companies, so the tender had to be canceled. Now, electricity will be sold in the Indian open market,”</span></span> said Ghising.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA had invited tenders in April to sell 200 MW of electricity to India for four and a half months of rainy season (July 1 to mid-November). Hydropower projects produce electricity in full capacity during the rainy season. They generate more than 2200 MW of electricity in the rainy season. However, the peak demand here is around 1600 MW. Accordingly, more than 600 MW of extra electricity is generated during this period.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA has been selling 364 MW of the surplus electricity at competitive rates in the Indian open market. India allowed NEA to sell 364 MW of electricity from six projects in Nepal in its market, which NEA has been selling in the Indian open market accordingly.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Besides, NEA failed to get permission to sell additional electricity in India despite seeking permission for it. There is no guarantee when the permission will be granted. In such a case, NEA tried to sell 200 MW through tender considering the increasing demand for electricity in India.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA said that the surplus electricity will probably be sold in the open market of India as well.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Despite getting permission for selling 364 MW of electricity, more than 400 MW is being sold in India during off hours. It also has a fair price. According to NEA, the tender was canceled due to the same reason.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Manikaran Power Limited of India, which participated in the tender bid, offered to buy 100 MW of electricity at the rates of Rs 7.77 (INR 4.85) and Rs 5.88 (INR 3.68). In addition, NTPC offered to buy 200 MW at Rs 6.88 (INR 4.3). Similarly, Arunachal Power Limited offered to buy 80 MW at Rs 6.73 (INR 4.21) and PTC Limited offered to buy 200 MW at Rs 6.62 (INR 4.14).</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Tata Power Trading offered to buy 50 MW at Rs 5.47 (INR 3.42) and Create Power Pvt. Ltd. offered to buy 100 MW at Rs 6.25 (INR 3.91). Similarly, Repex Energy submitted a proposal to purchase 50 MW of electricity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Earlier, NEA had been exporting electricity to India in the form of power exchange or energy banking. NEA invited tenders to export electricity to India commercially for the first time. However, this attempt failed. NEA has been selling electricity commercially in the Indian open market since last May.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15272', 'image' => '20220630020429_Transmission.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 14:03:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15529', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Construction of Nijgadh Int’l Airport Possible at Alternative Site: Full Text of SC Verdict', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The Supreme Court has made public the full text of its May 26 verdict over a case involving the proposed construction of Nijgadh International Airport.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The Supreme Court has made public the full text of its May 26 verdict over a case involving the proposed construction of Nijgadh International Airport. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A full bench of Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Prakash Man Singh Raut and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma has given differing views relating to the case. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Justices Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Prakash Man Singh Raut have ruled that the airport should not be built at the site, while Justices Harikrishna Karki and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma have said that the construction of the airport can be carried out at an alternative site after conducting an environmental impact assessment.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the opinion of the three judges, the work of construction of the airport has been annulled by a certiorari order as government's work on the airport in Nijgadh of Bara district so far was found to be flawed. "We should not ignore or underestimate the importance of protecting the environment while carrying such large construction,” reads the full text. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although it is natural to have some environmental damage during development works, it is mentioned that adequate alternative measures should be taken to minimize such damage as much as possible. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the full text released on Wednesday also states that the airport could be constructed at an alternative place by carrying out the environmental impact assessment of the site objectively and logically with regard to the suitability of airport construction in accordance with the due legal procedures. The construction of the airport should be carried in a location that is technically suitable and with minimal environmental damage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the opinion of Justices Hari Krishna Karki and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, the Nijgadh International Airport could be constructed in government-owned vacant land by adding private land adjacent to the proposed construction site south of Nijgadh in Bara district or elsewhere. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> If it is not found suitable for the construction of the airport due to technical or other reasons, the proposed area should be re-assessed as per the law and the environmental impact assessment should be done. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the full text says that forest area should not be used for the establishment and expansion of the proposed airport city during the construction of the airport. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15271', 'image' => '20220630123356_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 12:32:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15528', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Coronavirus Cases on the Rise', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing in the country in the last few days. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing in the country in the last few days. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 62 new cases of coronavirus were detected on Wednesday against 44 on Tuesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Spokesperson of the Health Ministry, Dr Sangeeta Kaushal Mishra, the latest number of coronavirus cases was confirmed from 1,620 tests. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Kathmandu district recorded 39 new cases of coronavirus while six cases of coronavirus were detected in Lalitpur. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Mishra shared that the country has 261 active cases of coronavirus. A total of 19 people recovered from the virus on Wednesday. With this, number of people recovered from the virus has reached 967,445 so far. The recovery rate is 98.9 per cent. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, a total of 184,545 people received vaccine against coronavirus on Wednesday. The ministry administrated vaccine against coronavirus to children from five years to 12 years from June 23-29. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15270', 'image' => '20220630115224_health-ministry.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 11:51:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15527', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Marks National Paddy Day amid Scarcity of Chemical Fertilizers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Despite its failure to provide chemical fertilizers to farmers on time, the government on Wednesday observed the National Paddy Day with the slogan of paddy import substitution by increasing production within the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">June 29: Despite its failure to provide chemical fertilizers to farmers on time, the government on Wednesday observed the National Paddy Day with the slogan of paddy import substitution by increasing production within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government marked the 19th National Paddy Day on June 29 this year. This day is observed every year on the 15th day of the third month of the Nepali calendar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, the 19th National Paddy Day and Plantation Festival, 2079 is being celebrated under the slogan 'Utilization of Biodiversity in Paddy Crops, Support to Import Substitution'.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had announced import substitution of 30 percent while unveiling the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The government has adopted the same policy in agriculture, e specially paddy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However popular the slogan might be, the government has not been able to supply fertilizer to the farmers during the peak season of planting paddy. The farmers are forced to begin planting paddy amid scarcity of fertilizer. They have used potassium in some places due to lack of urea while others have used manure prepared from cow dung. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stakeholders say that it is not appropriate for the government to celebrate the National Paddy Day with the slogan of import substitution when the farmers across the country are facing acute shortage of fertilizers. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15269', 'image' => '20220629093516_istockphoto-835478970-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 21:34:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15526', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CAAN gets Permission to Cut Trees of Rithepani Hill', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has reached an understanding with the Department of Forest and Land Conservation for clearing trees of Rithepani hill', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has reached an understanding with the Department of Forest and Land Conservation for clearing trees of Rithepani hill, which has been obstructing flights at Pokhara Regional International Airport since a long time.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The two government bodies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard, allowing the CAAN to downsize the hill which has been causing problems in take-off and landing of aircraft at the airport which is being upgraded with an investment of Rs 18 billion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN spokesperson Jagannath Niraula broke the news on Tuesday after signing the agreement. Deputy Director General of the Department of Forest and Land Conservation Nawaraj Pudasaini on behalf of the department and Hansraj Pandey on behalf of CAAN signed the MoU on Tuesday in the presence of Director General of the department Rajendra KC.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Niraula said that it would take about five months to cut down the trees. About 97 percent work of the airport is already completed. The hill has been reportedly obstructing international flights. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">After the agreement, the hill will be downsized and after some time, calibration flight and test flights will be conducted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Forests and Environment had approved the supplementary environmental impact assessment report in May.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Airport chief Binesh Munakarmi informed that one side of the hill needs to be reduced by 40 meters and the other side by 12.5 meters. The hill lies towards the east of the airport.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The total cost of upgrading the airport has been projected to cost Rs 22 billion while Rs 5 billion has been spend on land acquisition.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The construction of the vital infrastructure of the airport has been completed. According to Munankarmi, construction of 14 buildings is already completed. Aprons, taxi-way and runways have been already constructed. Cargo, hangar, terminal and other buildings are among the 14 buildings that have been constructed so far. According to him, just the beautification and finishing works are left.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Initiated in 2010, this airport of national pride was said to be completed in 4 years. However, the loan agreement was signed between the Government of Nepal and China only in February, 2016, with the target to complete it by 2020. The project deadline was extended after the construction works could not be completed on time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'CAAN, aviation, permission, airport, Pokhara, Rithepani, hill, construction, infrastructure, obstruction, flight, landing, take off, department, aviation', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15268', 'image' => '20220629072503_Pokhara-Airporta.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 19:24:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15525', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Production of 200 Industries Halted due to Floods', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Heavy rainfall on Tuesday flooded 200 industries in the Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: Heavy rainfall on Tuesday flooded 200 industries in the Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor. Although the flood water has not caused much damage yet, production has come to a halt. According to Chudamani Bhattarai, director general of the Industry Association Morang, production has been affected due to inundation of around 200 industries in Budhi Ganga and Katahari rural municipalities.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Industries in the Budhi Ganga Rural Municipality and its nearby areas get inundated every year </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">due to the lack of drainage while constructing a 6-lane road in the area.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, retaining walls set up on both sides of an under-construction road in Katahari Rural Municipality has prevented the rainwater from flowing into the river and has instead entered into the industries.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Bhattarai said that the industries that had lost millions of rupees due to the unseasonal floods last October are facing floods again.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Even though the water inside the industry did not cause much damage, more than 200 industries did not come into operation due to problems power circuit and lack of proper working condition.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is said that the flood of October had caused damages worth Rs 2.46 billion to 300 industries. Bhattarai said that no concrete steps have been taken to control the floods even after informing the concerned bodies of the government.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, 40 families have been displaced in Biratnagar and the victims have been shifted to safer places after the flood waters entered various settlements. Likewise, twenty-five households have been displaced due to the flooding of Singhiya Khola in Hatkhola of Biratnagar Metropolitan City-8. Fifteen families of Ward No. 2 have been displaced due to the same reason. Morang Police Spokesperson DSP Deepak Shrestha informed that 60 households have been displaced in Khartol of Katahari Rural Municipality-1. Eight families have been displaced in Belbari-6 due to the floods of Kharkhola.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the police, the emergency room of Birat Teaching Hospital at Budhiganga-2 has been closed due to flooding. A body of a man was found in Gachhiya river on Tuesday morning. Due to the rain on Monday night, the water levels in rivers of Jhapa, Sunsari and Morang rivers have risen and the settlements have been inundated.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The local administration has decided to shut down schools in Biratnagar for three days as there is no place to keep the people displaced by the floods. Chief of the Biratnagar Metropolitan City Nagesh Koirala informed that the decision was taken at an emergency meeting due to lack of space for the displaced.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Many people have been displaced by the floods and there is no place to keep them," Koirala said. "We have decided to give them three days off from school to accommodate the victims." </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'production, industries, halted, flood, unseasonal, rainfall, river, Biratnagar', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15267', 'image' => '20220629055115_Industries.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 17:50:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15524', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Govt to Set up a Company to Build Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with Domestic Investment', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The government has finally decided to build the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with domestic investment.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The government has finally decided to build the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with domestic investment. In this regard, the government is planning to set up a company to initiate the construction of the national pride project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A meeting of the cabinet held on Tuesday agreed in principle to endorse the proposal forwarded by the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation to build the project with domestic investment and also to establish a company for the construction of the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The project was halted for a long time as the government was not able to take a concrete decision on whether to construct the hydropower project with a total capacity of 1,200 MW with domestic investment or hand it over to a foreign company.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to a minister who attended the cabinet meeting, the government has taken the decision to establish the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Development Company Limited to undertake the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In 2014, a French company had prepared its detailed project report and submitted it to the government. The government has so far distributed compensation worth Rs 40 billion to those affected by the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has already collected more than Rs 70 billion by levying infrastructure tax for such projects. However, NOC has stopped collecting tax under this heading recently.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The project, which will affect about 50,000 people in the former 25 VDCs of Dhading and Gorkha, is also considered important for Nepal's energy security.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal, while replying to a question raised by the lawmakers on the Appropriation Bill for the upcoming fiscal year in the National Assembly on Monday, informed that the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project is being constructed in a company model.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The board of directors of the company will have representatives from the government including one secretary from the Ministry of Energy, one Gazetted First Class Officer each from the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance, an executive director of Nepal Electricity Authority and an independent operator. One woman representative has been made mandatory for independent management of the company.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The company's authorised capital will be equal to Rs 60 billion. The capital has been divided into a total of 600 million ordinary shares at Rs 100 per share.</span></span> <span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Finance will have a share equal to 25 per cent of the company’s total shares or 150 million units. Similarly, the Ministry of Energy will own 40 per cent of the shares or 240 million lots.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA will have a 14 per cent share that means 84 million units. Similarly, 10 per cent of the locals will get 60 million units of shares, and the general public will be eligible to apply for other 60 million units of shares.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15266', 'image' => '20220629022834_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 14:27:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15523', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Gold Dealers Demand Laws Related to Gold and Silver Business', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Federation of Gold and Silver Dealers Association of Nepal has demanded for relevant laws related to gold and silver business. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The Federation of Gold and Silver Dealers Association of Nepal has demanded for relevant laws related to gold and silver business. A delegation of the federation made such demand to the parliamentary committee on Industry, Commerce and Supplies. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The federation argued that it is necessary to formulate necessary laws in this regard as there is no clear law for gold and silver business.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The delegation led by president of the federation Manik Ratna Shakya called on the committee chairperson Bimal Srivastav and other lawmakers to take initiative for making relevant laws. During the meeting, office bearers of the federation also suggested the committee about the issues that need to be included in the law.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Businessmen affiliated to this sector have been complaining about the lack of clear laws related to the operation of gold and silver business. Officials of the federation complained that the concerned bodies are constantly ignoring their appeal despite repeated request for new and relevant laws.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15265', 'image' => '20220629015138_goldee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 13:50:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15522', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Street Food Banned in Kathmandu', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has banned the sale of food in the streets effective from Tuesday (June 28).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has banned the sale of food in the streets effective from Tuesday (June 28). The KMC stated that it took this step to control the spread of cholera in the capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As the number of cholera patients has been increasing in the Kathmandu Valley recently, the sale and distribution of food items that involves using water has been banned. The KMC has warned of action against those who disobey the order. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chief of the Health Department of the metropolis, Balram Tripathi, shared that the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control has been requested to check the level of food hygiene in hotels and restaurants. Likewise, the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited has been requested to look into the condition of water pipeline and sewerage system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, the urban health clinic and urban health promotion center have been kept in a state of readiness so that there is no shortage of oral rehydration solution such as Jeevan Jal and water purification tablets. The KMC has brought its hotline telephone number 1180 in operation 24 hours a day from Monday for any query related to cholera. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'street, food, KMC, Kathmandu, ban, cholera, hotline', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15264', 'image' => '20220629123713_f71e8c7ad3f2367f707da3cde4b1fbfd.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 12:36:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15521', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NCC Urges Australia to Invest in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has urged Australia to invest in Nepal confidently as it has already ensured policy-level reforms in the field of foreign investment. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 29: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has urged Australia to invest in Nepal confidently as it has already ensured policy-level reforms in the field of foreign investment. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a recent meeting Australia’s ambassador to Nepal, Felicity Volk, a delegation of NCC urged the Australian envoy to invest in Nepal’s hydropower sector, forests, tourism, agriculture and small industries.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting held on the occasion of the 60 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, Malla said that partnership from both the government and private sector was necessary for further strengthening the relations of Nepal and Australia.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that Australia has been helping Nepal in forest conservation since a long time, Malla expressed his belief that this initiative would get continuity in the future as well.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NCC President Rajendra Malla sought Australia’s help to promote industries involved in processing herbs and mining in the international market. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“Australia has invested heavily in many countries but its investment in Nepal is negligible,” said Malla, adding, “We would like to urge Australia to invest in Nepal’s hydropower sector taking into consideration the potential of electricity export to the Indian and Bangladeshi market.”</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In response, Ambassador Volk recalled 60 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries, and said that 50,000 Nepali students reach Australia each year on a student visa. She assured that the Australian government has given high priority to their education enhancement and career opportunities. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'investment, hydropower, Australia, forest conservation, Felicity, Volk, ambassador', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15263', 'image' => '20220629113757_RK_KTM-(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 11:37:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15520', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Spending Unnecessarily Despite Claiming Austerity Measures', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 28: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma replaced the ordinance budget of former minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel last August', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 28: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma replaced the ordinance budget of former minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel last August with the claim of cutting 10 percent expenditure under various headings including the budget for meeting allowance, fuel, maintenance, staff training, skill development and public awareness, etc.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Sharma also removed controversial and unreliable projects in the previous government's budget while ruthlessly cutting off the constituency development programmes and plans of the top leaders of the CPN-UML. However, Sharma has not been able to give continuity to the initiative at present. It has been speculated that his intention may have been not only to cut unnecessary expenditure but also to gain popularity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The headings under which he had cut the budget during last fiscal year has been included this time with additional amount allocated under the same headings. However, the need for cost reduction is greater now than it was before. The government can cut budgets on dozens of titles in order to reduce the current expenditure. But instead of doing so, Finance Minister Sharma seems to have allocated extra money.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For the current fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs 840 million for the foreign travel expenses of the government employees. But for the upcoming fiscal year, Finance Minister Sharma increased the budget under this heading to Rs 872.1 million. The move is against the government's policy of not allowing employees to travel abroad except for much-needed work, citing pressure on foreign exchange reserves.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government also increased the budget for other allowances received by the officials of various commissions and bodies. Government allocated Rs 394.3 million for the current year, which has been increased to Rs 430 million for the next fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">There are three other types of allowances including meeting allowance of office bearers. Employees receive 10 types of allowances in addition to salary. The government also seems to have increased the budget for fuel. In the current fiscal year, Rs 2.48 billion was allocated for the fuel expenses of the employees, but it has been increased by Rs 400 million to Rs 2.88 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The fuel budget of the office bearers has been increased from Rs 120 million to Rs 140 million. The budget of Rs 1.65 billion allocated for vehicle maintenance in the current fiscal year has been increased to Rs 1.68 billion for the next fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Rs. 815 million has been allocated for the purchase of vehicles under the heading of development expenditure. The budget includes various headings from development expenditure to office materials to administrative facilities. In the budget for the upcoming fiscal year presented by Finance Minister Sharma on May 29, no budget has been cut for any of the headings on trainings, seminars, visits and monitoring.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Looking at the budget allocation, it seems that the government's announcement to cut current expenditure by 10 percent this year and 15 percent next year is just to gain popularity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-28', 'modified' => '2022-06-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15262', 'image' => '20220628061840_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-28 18:17:04', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: Two more international airlines are ready to operate regular flights from Tribhuvan International Airport. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thai Smile Airways of Thailand is making its flight from July 1 and Sri Lankan Airlines of Sri Lanka from July 6, according to the TIA. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thai Smile Airways is operating flight from TIA for the first time while Sri Lankan Airlines is resuming its flight, which was closed due to COVID-19 pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Jagannath Niraula, said Thai Smile Airways will be operating direct flights between Kathmandu and Bangkok from Friday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the CAAN, the Thai company has received permission to operate flights on all seven days a week. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Sri Lankan Airlines has got permission to operate seven regular flights in a week. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Twenty-four airline companies including two Nepali airliners have now been operating international flights from TIA. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15276', 'image' => '20220630060106_Thai-SMILE-Airways-1-916x514.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 18:00:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15533', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Regional Trade and Connectivity in South Asia Gets More Than US$1 Billion Boost from World Bank', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The World Bank has approved US$1.03 billion of financing to help improve regional trade in Bangladesh and Nepal by reducing trade and transport costs and transit time along the regional corridors.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">June 30: The World Bank has approved US$1.03 billion of financing to help improve regional trade in Bangladesh and Nepal by reducing trade and transport costs and transit time along the regional corridors.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the World Bank, the first phase of the Accelerating Transport and Trade Connectivity in Eastern South Asia (ACCESS) Programme will help the respective governments address the key barriers to regional trade ─ manual and paper-based trade processes, inadequate transport and trade infrastructure, and restrictive trade and transport regulations and processes.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Issuing a statement on Tuesday, the World Bank said that the Phase 1 programme will help replace lengthy manual and paper-based trade processes with digitized automated solutions in Bangladesh and Nepal. The automation will enable faster border crossing times and install electronic tracking of truck entry and exit, electronic queuing, and smart parking. The programme will also help improve selected road corridors and upgrade key land ports and customs infrastructure, while ensuring green and climate-resilient construction, the statement added. This will help the integration of landlocked Bhutan and Nepal with the gateway countries of Bangladesh and India, it further stated.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Regional trade offers enormous untapped potential for the countries of South Asia. Today, regional trade accounts for only 5 percent of South Asia’s total trade, while in East Asia it accounts for 50 percent,” the statement quoted Hartwig Schafer, World Bank’s vice president for South Asia, as saying. “South Asia can boost economic growth significantly and create opportunities for millions of people by increasing regional trade and connectivity.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The US$275 million ACCESS Project in Nepal will upgrade 69 km two-lane Butwal—Gorusinghe—Chanauta road along the East-West Highway to a climate-resilient four-lane highway. This is expected to reduce travel time by 30 percent, thus providing better access to India’s western seaports. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the World Bank, the project will construct market areas along the highway with dedicated spaces for women entrepreneurs and traders to ensure that women can benefit from the enhanced economic opportunities. It will also support capacity building and digital system to enhance trade and customs processes at Birgunj and Bhairahawa border points in particular. The programme will also help advance Nepal’s preparedness and subsequent implementation of the Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“Nepal has large untapped potential for regional trade and exports. Low regional trade is often a result of the high cost of connectivity,” said Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank’s country director for the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. “The project will help unlock Nepal’s economic potential through better connectivity and trade, both between the provinces as well as regionally among Nepal and other countries to support a green, resilient, and inclusive development.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“It is highly critical to ensure trade growth, long-term sustainability and resilience of investments, while minimizing actual degradations on ecosystems along the Nepal’s road network, which carries 90 percent of passengers and goods movement,” said Oceane Keou, World Bank’s task team leader of the Nepal Project and co-task team leader of the programme. “The project will implement an innovative green and resilient highway corridor concept in Nepal, based on a landscape-level development approach.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In the second phase, the program will include Bhutan.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“A key focus of the ACCESS program is to support solutions that can most effectively reduce dwell times at trade gateways, which is vital to lowering trade costs. This entails greater border cooperation and coordination within and between countries, cutting down the physical inspection of goods, and simplifying regulations and processes,” said Erik Nora, World Bank’s task team leader of the program. “</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15275', 'image' => '20220630035324_World.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 15:52:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15531', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Gives Permission to Reduce the Amount of Gold used in Medals ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The government has decided to give permission to make changes in the design of medals presented to various individuals by reducing the amount of gold used in such decorations. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The government has decided to give permission to make changes in the design of medals presented to various individuals by reducing the amount of gold used in such decorations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki confirmed the decision during a press conference organized on Wednesday to make public the decisions taken by the Council of Ministers on June 28.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Karki, who is also the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, shared that the cabinet decided to approve the Performance Contract Guidelines, 2079. He said that the decision was taken for land acquisition for the tower of Birgunj-Simara-Pokhariya transmission line and to designate the authority to carry out preliminary action towards that end. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the government also decided to acquire land for the improvement, upgrading and expansion of transmission line and sub-stations in the Kathmandu Valley and to designate authority for the same. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The cabinet took the decision to consult with Public Service Commission on the draft of Armed Police (Second Amendment) Regulations-2079 and to allow the use of forest area for 220-KV transmission line of the Madhya-Bhotekoshi Hydropower Project. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson Karki added the meeting decided to form talks team for making carbon emission reduction procurement agreement, to allow the use of national forest area for the construction of Bhedetar Sky Walk and to remove trees for the construction of the Mahakali bridge. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15274', 'image' => '20220630025532_goldmedal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 14:54:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15532', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Airline Companies Start Parking Aircraft outside Kathmandu', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: Domestic airline companies have started making their first flights from half a dozen airports other than the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) from Tuesday morning (June 28).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 30: Domestic airline companies have started making their first flights from half a dozen airports other than the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) from Tuesday morning (June 28). The airlines companies that were reluctant to park their aircraft outside the TIA for night stop have approved new flight schedules and have also started the first flight from their new bases.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) had instructed the companies to pick up eight airports outside Kathmandu to start the first flight from the morning of June 28. TIA spokesperson Teknath Sitaula said that all the nine airlines have already approved the flight schedule and night parking at the designated airports.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> He stated that the directive of CAAN has finally been implemented. He added that the parking problem at the domestic airport and air security is bound to improve along with this new arrangement. According to the number of aircraft they have, all the airlines will keep 33 percent of the planes at the designated airports. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Sitaula, Buddha Air has the highest number of flights with many fixed-wing aircraft. The company has 15 aircraft including ATRs.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The company's communications manager Dipendra Kumar Karna said the aircraft were sent to various airports on Monday night for night parking. He said that Buddha Air made its first flights from five different airports (Dhangadhi, Pokhara, Bhairahawa, Janakpur and Simara) on Tuesday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Yeti Airlines’ spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula said that the company has made Nepalgunj and Biratnagar as their new bases for the time being.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN had instructed the companies to set up night bases outside the Kathmandu valley, but the aircraft of those companies are allowed to take off and land in Kathmandu. However, night parking of certain number of aircraft is not allowed. Although the parking capacity of TIA's domestic airport is 17, more than 35 aircrafts were being parked at the airport.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN has designated airports of Chandragadhi, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Simara, Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa, Dhangadhi and Kathmandu as bases on the basis of AOC for operating the aircraft.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-07-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15273', 'image' => '20220630032136_airraft.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 15:20:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15530', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tender to Export 200 MW of Electricity to India Scrapped', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has canceled the tender called to sell 200 MW of electricity to India as it could not get the price for the electricity as per the expectations.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 30: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has canceled the tender called to sell 200 MW of electricity to India as it could not get the price for the electricity as per the expectations. Six Indian companies involved in trading electricity had submitted proposals for the tender. However, the NEA stated that the tender was canceled as the proposed rates were not satisfactory.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA is currently selling electricity in the Indian open market at Rs 19.20 per unit (INR 12). However, the companies participating in the tender offered a maximum of Rs 7.77 per unit (INR 4.86), which is lower than the average selling rate of NEA. The average selling rate in Nepal is Rs 10 per unit. NEA canceled the tender after the Indian companies did not come up with a satisfactory proposals of purchase rate. NEA is getting good price of electricity due to the ongoing energy crisis in India. At the same time, NEA says, the proposals came from the Indian companies at very low rates.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Executive Director of NEA, Kulman Ghising confirmed that the tender called for the purpose of selling electricity in India has been canceled. “We did not get expected price from the Indian companies, so the tender had to be canceled. Now, electricity will be sold in the Indian open market,”</span></span> said Ghising.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA had invited tenders in April to sell 200 MW of electricity to India for four and a half months of rainy season (July 1 to mid-November). Hydropower projects produce electricity in full capacity during the rainy season. They generate more than 2200 MW of electricity in the rainy season. However, the peak demand here is around 1600 MW. Accordingly, more than 600 MW of extra electricity is generated during this period.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA has been selling 364 MW of the surplus electricity at competitive rates in the Indian open market. India allowed NEA to sell 364 MW of electricity from six projects in Nepal in its market, which NEA has been selling in the Indian open market accordingly.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Besides, NEA failed to get permission to sell additional electricity in India despite seeking permission for it. There is no guarantee when the permission will be granted. In such a case, NEA tried to sell 200 MW through tender considering the increasing demand for electricity in India.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA said that the surplus electricity will probably be sold in the open market of India as well.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Despite getting permission for selling 364 MW of electricity, more than 400 MW is being sold in India during off hours. It also has a fair price. According to NEA, the tender was canceled due to the same reason.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Manikaran Power Limited of India, which participated in the tender bid, offered to buy 100 MW of electricity at the rates of Rs 7.77 (INR 4.85) and Rs 5.88 (INR 3.68). In addition, NTPC offered to buy 200 MW at Rs 6.88 (INR 4.3). Similarly, Arunachal Power Limited offered to buy 80 MW at Rs 6.73 (INR 4.21) and PTC Limited offered to buy 200 MW at Rs 6.62 (INR 4.14).</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Tata Power Trading offered to buy 50 MW at Rs 5.47 (INR 3.42) and Create Power Pvt. Ltd. offered to buy 100 MW at Rs 6.25 (INR 3.91). Similarly, Repex Energy submitted a proposal to purchase 50 MW of electricity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Earlier, NEA had been exporting electricity to India in the form of power exchange or energy banking. NEA invited tenders to export electricity to India commercially for the first time. However, this attempt failed. NEA has been selling electricity commercially in the Indian open market since last May.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15272', 'image' => '20220630020429_Transmission.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 14:03:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15529', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Construction of Nijgadh Int’l Airport Possible at Alternative Site: Full Text of SC Verdict', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The Supreme Court has made public the full text of its May 26 verdict over a case involving the proposed construction of Nijgadh International Airport.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The Supreme Court has made public the full text of its May 26 verdict over a case involving the proposed construction of Nijgadh International Airport. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A full bench of Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Prakash Man Singh Raut and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma has given differing views relating to the case. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Justices Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Prakash Man Singh Raut have ruled that the airport should not be built at the site, while Justices Harikrishna Karki and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma have said that the construction of the airport can be carried out at an alternative site after conducting an environmental impact assessment.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the opinion of the three judges, the work of construction of the airport has been annulled by a certiorari order as government's work on the airport in Nijgadh of Bara district so far was found to be flawed. "We should not ignore or underestimate the importance of protecting the environment while carrying such large construction,” reads the full text. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although it is natural to have some environmental damage during development works, it is mentioned that adequate alternative measures should be taken to minimize such damage as much as possible. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the full text released on Wednesday also states that the airport could be constructed at an alternative place by carrying out the environmental impact assessment of the site objectively and logically with regard to the suitability of airport construction in accordance with the due legal procedures. The construction of the airport should be carried in a location that is technically suitable and with minimal environmental damage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In the opinion of Justices Hari Krishna Karki and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, the Nijgadh International Airport could be constructed in government-owned vacant land by adding private land adjacent to the proposed construction site south of Nijgadh in Bara district or elsewhere. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> If it is not found suitable for the construction of the airport due to technical or other reasons, the proposed area should be re-assessed as per the law and the environmental impact assessment should be done. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the full text says that forest area should not be used for the establishment and expansion of the proposed airport city during the construction of the airport. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15271', 'image' => '20220630123356_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 12:32:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15528', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Coronavirus Cases on the Rise', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 30: The number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing in the country in the last few days. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 30: The number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing in the country in the last few days. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 62 new cases of coronavirus were detected on Wednesday against 44 on Tuesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Spokesperson of the Health Ministry, Dr Sangeeta Kaushal Mishra, the latest number of coronavirus cases was confirmed from 1,620 tests. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Kathmandu district recorded 39 new cases of coronavirus while six cases of coronavirus were detected in Lalitpur. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Mishra shared that the country has 261 active cases of coronavirus. A total of 19 people recovered from the virus on Wednesday. With this, number of people recovered from the virus has reached 967,445 so far. The recovery rate is 98.9 per cent. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, a total of 184,545 people received vaccine against coronavirus on Wednesday. The ministry administrated vaccine against coronavirus to children from five years to 12 years from June 23-29. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-30', 'modified' => '2022-06-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15270', 'image' => '20220630115224_health-ministry.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-30 11:51:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15527', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Marks National Paddy Day amid Scarcity of Chemical Fertilizers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Despite its failure to provide chemical fertilizers to farmers on time, the government on Wednesday observed the National Paddy Day with the slogan of paddy import substitution by increasing production within the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">June 29: Despite its failure to provide chemical fertilizers to farmers on time, the government on Wednesday observed the National Paddy Day with the slogan of paddy import substitution by increasing production within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government marked the 19th National Paddy Day on June 29 this year. This day is observed every year on the 15th day of the third month of the Nepali calendar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, the 19th National Paddy Day and Plantation Festival, 2079 is being celebrated under the slogan 'Utilization of Biodiversity in Paddy Crops, Support to Import Substitution'.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had announced import substitution of 30 percent while unveiling the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The government has adopted the same policy in agriculture, e specially paddy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However popular the slogan might be, the government has not been able to supply fertilizer to the farmers during the peak season of planting paddy. The farmers are forced to begin planting paddy amid scarcity of fertilizer. They have used potassium in some places due to lack of urea while others have used manure prepared from cow dung. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stakeholders say that it is not appropriate for the government to celebrate the National Paddy Day with the slogan of import substitution when the farmers across the country are facing acute shortage of fertilizers. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15269', 'image' => '20220629093516_istockphoto-835478970-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 21:34:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15526', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CAAN gets Permission to Cut Trees of Rithepani Hill', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has reached an understanding with the Department of Forest and Land Conservation for clearing trees of Rithepani hill', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has reached an understanding with the Department of Forest and Land Conservation for clearing trees of Rithepani hill, which has been obstructing flights at Pokhara Regional International Airport since a long time.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The two government bodies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard, allowing the CAAN to downsize the hill which has been causing problems in take-off and landing of aircraft at the airport which is being upgraded with an investment of Rs 18 billion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">CAAN spokesperson Jagannath Niraula broke the news on Tuesday after signing the agreement. Deputy Director General of the Department of Forest and Land Conservation Nawaraj Pudasaini on behalf of the department and Hansraj Pandey on behalf of CAAN signed the MoU on Tuesday in the presence of Director General of the department Rajendra KC.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Niraula said that it would take about five months to cut down the trees. About 97 percent work of the airport is already completed. The hill has been reportedly obstructing international flights. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">After the agreement, the hill will be downsized and after some time, calibration flight and test flights will be conducted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Forests and Environment had approved the supplementary environmental impact assessment report in May.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Airport chief Binesh Munakarmi informed that one side of the hill needs to be reduced by 40 meters and the other side by 12.5 meters. The hill lies towards the east of the airport.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The total cost of upgrading the airport has been projected to cost Rs 22 billion while Rs 5 billion has been spend on land acquisition.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The construction of the vital infrastructure of the airport has been completed. According to Munankarmi, construction of 14 buildings is already completed. Aprons, taxi-way and runways have been already constructed. Cargo, hangar, terminal and other buildings are among the 14 buildings that have been constructed so far. According to him, just the beautification and finishing works are left.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Initiated in 2010, this airport of national pride was said to be completed in 4 years. However, the loan agreement was signed between the Government of Nepal and China only in February, 2016, with the target to complete it by 2020. The project deadline was extended after the construction works could not be completed on time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'CAAN, aviation, permission, airport, Pokhara, Rithepani, hill, construction, infrastructure, obstruction, flight, landing, take off, department, aviation', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15268', 'image' => '20220629072503_Pokhara-Airporta.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 19:24:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15525', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Production of 200 Industries Halted due to Floods', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Heavy rainfall on Tuesday flooded 200 industries in the Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: Heavy rainfall on Tuesday flooded 200 industries in the Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor. Although the flood water has not caused much damage yet, production has come to a halt. According to Chudamani Bhattarai, director general of the Industry Association Morang, production has been affected due to inundation of around 200 industries in Budhi Ganga and Katahari rural municipalities.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Industries in the Budhi Ganga Rural Municipality and its nearby areas get inundated every year </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">due to the lack of drainage while constructing a 6-lane road in the area.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, retaining walls set up on both sides of an under-construction road in Katahari Rural Municipality has prevented the rainwater from flowing into the river and has instead entered into the industries.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Bhattarai said that the industries that had lost millions of rupees due to the unseasonal floods last October are facing floods again.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Even though the water inside the industry did not cause much damage, more than 200 industries did not come into operation due to problems power circuit and lack of proper working condition.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">It is said that the flood of October had caused damages worth Rs 2.46 billion to 300 industries. Bhattarai said that no concrete steps have been taken to control the floods even after informing the concerned bodies of the government.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, 40 families have been displaced in Biratnagar and the victims have been shifted to safer places after the flood waters entered various settlements. Likewise, twenty-five households have been displaced due to the flooding of Singhiya Khola in Hatkhola of Biratnagar Metropolitan City-8. Fifteen families of Ward No. 2 have been displaced due to the same reason. Morang Police Spokesperson DSP Deepak Shrestha informed that 60 households have been displaced in Khartol of Katahari Rural Municipality-1. Eight families have been displaced in Belbari-6 due to the floods of Kharkhola.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the police, the emergency room of Birat Teaching Hospital at Budhiganga-2 has been closed due to flooding. A body of a man was found in Gachhiya river on Tuesday morning. Due to the rain on Monday night, the water levels in rivers of Jhapa, Sunsari and Morang rivers have risen and the settlements have been inundated.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The local administration has decided to shut down schools in Biratnagar for three days as there is no place to keep the people displaced by the floods. Chief of the Biratnagar Metropolitan City Nagesh Koirala informed that the decision was taken at an emergency meeting due to lack of space for the displaced.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Many people have been displaced by the floods and there is no place to keep them," Koirala said. "We have decided to give them three days off from school to accommodate the victims." </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'production, industries, halted, flood, unseasonal, rainfall, river, Biratnagar', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15267', 'image' => '20220629055115_Industries.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 17:50:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15524', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Govt to Set up a Company to Build Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with Domestic Investment', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The government has finally decided to build the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with domestic investment.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The government has finally decided to build the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project with domestic investment. In this regard, the government is planning to set up a company to initiate the construction of the national pride project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A meeting of the cabinet held on Tuesday agreed in principle to endorse the proposal forwarded by the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation to build the project with domestic investment and also to establish a company for the construction of the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The project was halted for a long time as the government was not able to take a concrete decision on whether to construct the hydropower project with a total capacity of 1,200 MW with domestic investment or hand it over to a foreign company.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to a minister who attended the cabinet meeting, the government has taken the decision to establish the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Development Company Limited to undertake the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In 2014, a French company had prepared its detailed project report and submitted it to the government. The government has so far distributed compensation worth Rs 40 billion to those affected by the project.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has already collected more than Rs 70 billion by levying infrastructure tax for such projects. However, NOC has stopped collecting tax under this heading recently.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The project, which will affect about 50,000 people in the former 25 VDCs of Dhading and Gorkha, is also considered important for Nepal's energy security.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal, while replying to a question raised by the lawmakers on the Appropriation Bill for the upcoming fiscal year in the National Assembly on Monday, informed that the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project is being constructed in a company model.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The board of directors of the company will have representatives from the government including one secretary from the Ministry of Energy, one Gazetted First Class Officer each from the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance, an executive director of Nepal Electricity Authority and an independent operator. One woman representative has been made mandatory for independent management of the company.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The company's authorised capital will be equal to Rs 60 billion. The capital has been divided into a total of 600 million ordinary shares at Rs 100 per share.</span></span> <span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Finance will have a share equal to 25 per cent of the company’s total shares or 150 million units. Similarly, the Ministry of Energy will own 40 per cent of the shares or 240 million lots.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NEA will have a 14 per cent share that means 84 million units. Similarly, 10 per cent of the locals will get 60 million units of shares, and the general public will be eligible to apply for other 60 million units of shares.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15266', 'image' => '20220629022834_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 14:27:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15523', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Gold Dealers Demand Laws Related to Gold and Silver Business', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Federation of Gold and Silver Dealers Association of Nepal has demanded for relevant laws related to gold and silver business. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 29: The Federation of Gold and Silver Dealers Association of Nepal has demanded for relevant laws related to gold and silver business. A delegation of the federation made such demand to the parliamentary committee on Industry, Commerce and Supplies. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The federation argued that it is necessary to formulate necessary laws in this regard as there is no clear law for gold and silver business.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The delegation led by president of the federation Manik Ratna Shakya called on the committee chairperson Bimal Srivastav and other lawmakers to take initiative for making relevant laws. During the meeting, office bearers of the federation also suggested the committee about the issues that need to be included in the law.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Businessmen affiliated to this sector have been complaining about the lack of clear laws related to the operation of gold and silver business. Officials of the federation complained that the concerned bodies are constantly ignoring their appeal despite repeated request for new and relevant laws.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15265', 'image' => '20220629015138_goldee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 13:50:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15522', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Street Food Banned in Kathmandu', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has banned the sale of food in the streets effective from Tuesday (June 28).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has banned the sale of food in the streets effective from Tuesday (June 28). The KMC stated that it took this step to control the spread of cholera in the capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As the number of cholera patients has been increasing in the Kathmandu Valley recently, the sale and distribution of food items that involves using water has been banned. The KMC has warned of action against those who disobey the order. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chief of the Health Department of the metropolis, Balram Tripathi, shared that the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control has been requested to check the level of food hygiene in hotels and restaurants. Likewise, the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited has been requested to look into the condition of water pipeline and sewerage system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, the urban health clinic and urban health promotion center have been kept in a state of readiness so that there is no shortage of oral rehydration solution such as Jeevan Jal and water purification tablets. The KMC has brought its hotline telephone number 1180 in operation 24 hours a day from Monday for any query related to cholera. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'street, food, KMC, Kathmandu, ban, cholera, hotline', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15264', 'image' => '20220629123713_f71e8c7ad3f2367f707da3cde4b1fbfd.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 12:36:16', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15521', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NCC Urges Australia to Invest in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 29: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has urged Australia to invest in Nepal confidently as it has already ensured policy-level reforms in the field of foreign investment. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 29: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has urged Australia to invest in Nepal confidently as it has already ensured policy-level reforms in the field of foreign investment. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a recent meeting Australia’s ambassador to Nepal, Felicity Volk, a delegation of NCC urged the Australian envoy to invest in Nepal’s hydropower sector, forests, tourism, agriculture and small industries.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting held on the occasion of the 60 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, Malla said that partnership from both the government and private sector was necessary for further strengthening the relations of Nepal and Australia.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that Australia has been helping Nepal in forest conservation since a long time, Malla expressed his belief that this initiative would get continuity in the future as well.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NCC President Rajendra Malla sought Australia’s help to promote industries involved in processing herbs and mining in the international market. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“Australia has invested heavily in many countries but its investment in Nepal is negligible,” said Malla, adding, “We would like to urge Australia to invest in Nepal’s hydropower sector taking into consideration the potential of electricity export to the Indian and Bangladeshi market.”</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In response, Ambassador Volk recalled 60 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries, and said that 50,000 Nepali students reach Australia each year on a student visa. She assured that the Australian government has given high priority to their education enhancement and career opportunities. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-29', 'modified' => '2022-06-29', 'keywords' => 'investment, hydropower, Australia, forest conservation, Felicity, Volk, ambassador', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15263', 'image' => '20220629113757_RK_KTM-(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-29 11:37:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15520', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Spending Unnecessarily Despite Claiming Austerity Measures', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 28: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma replaced the ordinance budget of former minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel last August', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">June 28: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma replaced the ordinance budget of former minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel last August with the claim of cutting 10 percent expenditure under various headings including the budget for meeting allowance, fuel, maintenance, staff training, skill development and public awareness, etc.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Sharma also removed controversial and unreliable projects in the previous government's budget while ruthlessly cutting off the constituency development programmes and plans of the top leaders of the CPN-UML. However, Sharma has not been able to give continuity to the initiative at present. It has been speculated that his intention may have been not only to cut unnecessary expenditure but also to gain popularity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The headings under which he had cut the budget during last fiscal year has been included this time with additional amount allocated under the same headings. However, the need for cost reduction is greater now than it was before. The government can cut budgets on dozens of titles in order to reduce the current expenditure. But instead of doing so, Finance Minister Sharma seems to have allocated extra money.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For the current fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs 840 million for the foreign travel expenses of the government employees. But for the upcoming fiscal year, Finance Minister Sharma increased the budget under this heading to Rs 872.1 million. The move is against the government's policy of not allowing employees to travel abroad except for much-needed work, citing pressure on foreign exchange reserves.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government also increased the budget for other allowances received by the officials of various commissions and bodies. Government allocated Rs 394.3 million for the current year, which has been increased to Rs 430 million for the next fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">There are three other types of allowances including meeting allowance of office bearers. Employees receive 10 types of allowances in addition to salary. The government also seems to have increased the budget for fuel. In the current fiscal year, Rs 2.48 billion was allocated for the fuel expenses of the employees, but it has been increased by Rs 400 million to Rs 2.88 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The fuel budget of the office bearers has been increased from Rs 120 million to Rs 140 million. The budget of Rs 1.65 billion allocated for vehicle maintenance in the current fiscal year has been increased to Rs 1.68 billion for the next fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Rs. 815 million has been allocated for the purchase of vehicles under the heading of development expenditure. The budget includes various headings from development expenditure to office materials to administrative facilities. In the budget for the upcoming fiscal year presented by Finance Minister Sharma on May 29, no budget has been cut for any of the headings on trainings, seminars, visits and monitoring.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Looking at the budget allocation, it seems that the government's announcement to cut current expenditure by 10 percent this year and 15 percent next year is just to gain popularity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-28', 'modified' => '2022-06-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15262', 'image' => '20220628061840_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-28 18:17:04', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
| Currency | Unit |
Buy | Sell |
| U.S. Dollar | 1 | 121.23 | 121.83 |
| European Euro | 1 | 131.65 | 132.31 |
| UK Pound Sterling | 1 | 142.47 | 143.18 |
| Swiss Franc | 1 | 124.29 | 124.90 |
| Australian Dollar | 1 | 71.69 | 72.05 |
| Canadian Dollar | 1 | 83.90 | 84.32 |
| Japanese Yen | 10 | 10.94 | 11.00 |
| Chinese Yuan | 1 | 17.17 | 17.26 |
| Saudi Arabian Riyal | 1 | 32.27 | 32.43 |
| UAE Dirham | 1 | 33.01 | 33.17 |
| Malaysian Ringgit | 1 | 27.36 | 27.50 |
| South Korean Won | 100 | 9.77 | 9.82 |
Update: 2020-03-25 | Source: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)
| Fine Gold | 1 tola | 77000.00 |
| Tejabi Gold | 1 tola | 76700.00 |
| Silver | 1 tola | 720.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
Source: Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association
| Petrol | 1 Liter | 106.00 |
| Diesel | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| Kerosene | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| LP Gas | 1 Cylinder | 1375.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
