195 MW electricity produced, 915 km road blacktopped in current fiscal

By Tirtha Bhattaraee

The government has been able to produce 195 MW of power and blacktop 915 kms roadway across the country this fiscal year.

With the addition, the total installed capacity of country’s electricity has reached 1,325 MW. It is the 77 percent increase compared to the previous fiscal year.

‘People’s hydropower program’ was also launched by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in this fiscal year.

In the review meeting of the ministries held in the presence of Prime Minister Oli on Thursday, it was shared that 420,000 households were provided access to electricity. Similarly, 1,050 km roadway was graveled and a total of 243 bridges constructed.

As per the information shared at the meeting, a detailed project report for 421 km railway was prepared.

With the construction of 35 km rail line along Jaynagar-Janakpur-Kurtha and the substation, the operation of the railway is to begin coming September, while 18 km railway from Bathnaha-Biratnagar was ready for operation.

The Ministry of Physical Infrastructures further shared that feasibility study of Raxaul-Kathmandu (135 km) and Kathmandu-Rasuwagadhi (72 km) railway were done.

Temporary quarantine offices were set up at Rasuwa and Thankot.

Under the urban development programme, a total of 230 km urban roadway was constructed at the headquarters of 20 Tarai/Madhes districts.

Three bus parks (Inaruwa, Siddharthanagar, and Dhangadhi) were also constructed.

A total of 280,839 population benefitted with drinking water supply with the construction of 526 projects this fiscal year.

Efforts are underway to announce the country open defecation free by coming September.

Box office system was launched in all cinema halls in the Kathmandu Valley; Nepal Television transformed into the HD system and a journalist career fund of Rs 53 million was established by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology this year.

73 per cent progress of Gautam Buddha airport In the meeting, it was shared that the expansion and upgrading of Tribhuvan International Airport has seen 60 per cent progress while 73 per cent of the work on Gautam Buddha international airport has been completed.

Furthermore, Pokhara regional airport has seen 42 per cent progress.

The government has granted license to 22 industrialists to operate industries and enterprises in the Bhairahawa special economic zone while the Simara special economic zone is being constructed.

It was also shared that the Motihari-Raxaul-Amlekhgunj petroleum pipeline has been completed.

Construction of a dry port with financial and technical support of the Chinese government is underway in Timure while the dry port in Larcha of Sindhupalchowk has come into operation.

The latter also led to the opening of the Tatopani transit point.

Under land management, field work for measuring the height of Sagarmatha or Mt Everest has been completed while geographical information system has been implemented in land survey, map and land ownership.

During the period, forest encroachment in 2044 hectares was removed while saplings were planted in 4,100 hectares of land against the target of covering 4,000 hectares. This year 5.638 million students received text books free of cost, the formation of the medical education commission has been initiated and a nano satellite named NEPSAT was sent to space.

Also during the period, an act relating to mandatory and free education, 2074 and medical education, act, 2075 were drafted.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Population has shared that the health insurance scheme has been expanded to 456 local levels in 46 districts, with the number of insured crossing 1.8 million.

The President Women Upliftment Improvement Programme has been extended to 29 districts from 14 in the last fiscal year, according to the concerned Ministry.

Emergency air rescue was conducted for 25 expecting mothers from various districts facing life-threatening situations.

Likewise, the Ministry of Youth and Sports has shared that 11,879 youths were self-employed after the government provided loan over Rs 1 billion.

It was also shared that Nepal bagged silver medal in the paragliding competition in the 18th ASIAN Games held in Indonesia.

Nepal clinched gold medal in the World Body-Building competition held in Thailand.

Similarly, Ministry for Federal Affairs and General Administration shared that vacancy was launched through the Public Service Commission to recruit a total of 15,911 human resource demanded in 603 local units in all seven provinces.

The employees’ adjustment process was concluded adjusting a total of 99,572 civil servants in various local, provincial and federal level.

During this period, energy agreement was signed between Bangladesh and Nepal, the pact on Nepal-China transportation and transit was signed and implemented and Nepal-China Trans-Himalayan railway connectivity was boosted through second BRI Forum’s meeting.

BIMSTEC’s fourth summit was held during this course, it was shared while bilateral agreements for cooperation were signed between Nepal and Cambodia, Nepal and Myanmar and Nepal and Vietnam.

It was also shared that DPR of Kathmandu-Terai-Fast-track had been completed and sent to the Council of Ministers for approval.

Peace-keepers Selection Guidelines -2075 was approved and implemented to ensure transparency and impartially during the selection of candidates to send security personnel for various peace-keeping missions abroad.

The inauguration of 103-km -Jajarkot-Dolpa (Dunai) Road was held. Nepal Army has been entrusted with the responsibility to construct this road.

The strategic plan was devised and implemented to manage the National Identity Card and so far 80,000 Nepali nationals were provided with national identity card.

Prime Minister Oli and ministers, secretaries and Vice-President of the National Planning Commission, Dr Pushpa Raj Kandel, among others had observed the presentation on progress report on national pride projects in the Action Room in the Prime Minister’s Office.

A total of 18 ministries presented their progress report while the remaining ministries are scheduled to present their progress reports tomorrow.