ONE STOP FOR WORLD MEDIA COVERAGE ON NEPAL
Nepal Tamakoshi Power Project to kick off soon
Kathmandu, Jan 28: Nepal, suffering from serious power shortage plans to upgrade its Upper Tamakoshi hydro project to boost its electricity infrastructure, despite facing cash crunch. The government plans to upgrade the Rs 30 billion Upper Tamakoshi Hydro Project (UTHEP) from current 309 MW to 456 MW by injecting additional Rs 3 billion. "This is the cheapest hydropower project in the country," Mrigendra Shrestha, project manager , UTHEP was quoted as saying by Kantipur. The working committee of UTHEP recently decided to increase the project capacity by 147 MW. The upgraded project would generate 2247 GWh annually, while the same project with the capacity of 309 MW was expected to generate 1,777 GWh, Shrestha said. The present cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 30 billion and Nepalese investors have already pledged Rs 20.5 billion. The remaining money can be arranged through selling power bonds and floating shares in the market. This project is being developed entirely by mobilising domestic resource, as pointed out by Prime Minister Prachand in his recent address to the nation. The Employee's Provident Fund has pledged Rs 12 billion, the Consortium of six commercial banks led by Himalayan Bank has pledged Rs 6 billion and the Citizens' Investment Fund will provide Rs 2.5 billion to construct the project. But the additional fund is unlikely to be collected through mobilising domestic sectors, said a senior engineer of the NEA. It is difficult even to manage Rs 30 billion needed for the 309 MW project, how is it possible to get more fund for generating 147 more electricity, he said. However, the Nepal Electricity Corporation has been instructed by the government to generate additional 147 MW power from the project by improving the project design which is estimated to cost Rs 3 to Rs 4 billion, departmental sources said. The NEA is planning to install four additional turbines and some modification in the structure of the project for its capacity up-gradation. If everything goes right, the 309 MW project will be completed within 3-4 years, but if we try to generate additional power with ambitious plan, it would not be materialised so easily, the NEA staffer pointed out. It is learnt that the government is in the final stage of calling tender for contractors to build the project. The project is entirely meant for Nepal's domestic consumption. After the completion of the project, Nepal will be in a position to reduce load-shedding hours substantially to minimum
More than 1,000 chickens die from unknown disease in central Nepal
KATHMANDU, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 local chickens have died from unknown disease in a village in Sindhuli district in central Nepal, the National News Agency RSS reported on Wednesday. According to the RSS, the chickens died from the disease, that has spread for the past few days, said a local. She said 75 local chickens died in her house alone. They died with swollen throat and accumulation of water. The disease is not identified and the whole village, some 40 km southeast of Kathmandu, is in terror, the RSS said. Technical team from the District Livestock Office has not reached so far, whereas technician of the office Tika Shrestha said the outbreak was because no medicines were given to the chickens in time. Earlier, Nepal started culling birds from Jan. 16 in Kakarvittaof Jhapa District, which is a bird flu emergency area. It was the first time to detect the disease in Nepal.
Kosi river put back on original course
Saptakosi river, which broke its embankment in Nepal last year and displaced millions of people in the Terai plains and the Indian state of Bihar, has been put back on its original course after combined efforts of engineers from the two neighbouring countries, officials said on Tuesday. The Saptakosi river in eastern Nepal near the Indian border has been put back on its original course after repair works in the cofferdams has been completed, according to Water Resources Ministry officials here. India and Nepal came together to complete the work of repairing the embankment of Kosi river, which breached and triggered massive floods in the bordering areas of the two countries. The massive breach in the 50-year old Kosi barrage last August had caused widespread floods on both sides of the border, affecting some 60,000 people living in the Terai plains of Nepal and three million in the Indian state of Bihar last year. The works for the restoration of the afflux bund has started after bringing the Kosi river under control, according to officials. Indian and Nepalese engineers came together to put the Kosi river back on its original course after embankment was breached on August 18. Thousands of people displaced by the river continue to live in temporary camps in Nepal as their houses were swept away by the floods
Chandni Chowk to China 'banned' in Nepal
Kathmandu (IANS): As protests continued to erupt on the streets of Kathmandu Thursday over Bollywood's first Kungfu comedy "Chandni Chowk to China", cinemas in Nepal stopped screening the controversial film, saying they had replaced it with other films. All Kathmandu valley cinemas, from multiplexes like Jai Nepal, Kumari, Gopi Krishna and Barahi, to smaller ones like Guna and Ashta Narayan, hurriedly dropped the Akshay Kumar-Deepika Padukone starrer and began showing the earlier Bollywood release "Ghajini" or waited for another Bollywood film "Raaz" to be released Friday. The decision, that would cost the distributors of the films millions of rupees, was taken after angry protests began over the erroneous claim in the film that the Buddha, Nepal's best-known religious icon, was born in India. "The Buddha was born in Nepal, learn to respect Nepal's identity and sovereignty," students screamed during a protest rally before an engineering college in the valley Thursday. In the Lainchaur area near the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, protesters marched in silence, waving placards. "The trouble was created by the narration in the film," said Nepali film director K.P. Pathak, who heads the Nepal Film Directors' Association that is urging audiences to boycott all foreign films that project wrong messages. "About five minutes into the film, the narration introduces the hero as someone born in India, the Buddha's birthplace," Pathak told IANS. The Buddha was born prince Siddharth in Lumbini in south Nepal in 623 BC. Thousands of pilgrims and tourists visit south Nepal every year to pay their homage to the apostle of peace. Before being released in Nepal Friday, "Chandni Chowk to China" was viewed by Nepal's censor board who objected to the dialogue. Subsequently, the distributors deleted it.
Nepal Drowning In Garbage After Strikes
By Mohan Nepali KATHMANDU-- For three weeks, Kathmandu has been suffocating in mountains of trash. After Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) and Nepali Congress (NC) workers and supporters blocked garbage trucks on the way to local dumping sites, garbage has piled up throughout the city. For about 50 years, Nepal's government has not been able to systematically manage their garbage removal. Usually, it's a revolving door: the Kathmandu Metropolis assigned with removing the garbage seeks a temporary dumping site, and uses it until trucks are blocked by protesters, then finds a new one. This has become customary practice with no new policies and changes. Villagers nearby the disposal site always complain that the government uses such areas without implementing compensation commitments. However, city authorities say political activists always violate the previous agreements for the sake of opposition politics. As the government has not had any long-term strategy to manage garbage, inter-prohibiting political parties, who prefer to impose their own party rule in the name of democracy, use garbage as a tool of petty politics. Sources from Okharpauwa village close to the dumping site, say local activists of political parties are indulged in garbage politics through which they compete to profit economically. According to the sources, garbage piles up in Kathmandu while they are involved in garbage politics. It is believed that their parties, too, are politically motivated to defame one another under this garbage politics. The Nepalis, divided terribly by self-centered political parties, are always tired of the garbage-like politics of the country. They find political leaders extremely shaky in a political sense. After the Maoists formally entered the mainstream peace process in November 206 by signing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), people had hoped that Nepal would see vast changes in every sector after a new inclusive constitution would be drafted. But the major political parties themselves have now little heeded the constitution-writing assignment given by the Nepalis, who elected the Constituent Assembly on 10 April 2008 for the purpose.
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