Submit your Article

The road has been opened for the construction of the Dodhara Chandani Dry Port in Kanchanpur’s Dodhara Chandani Municipality. On September 18, the Government of Nepal approved the use of 42.36 hectares of Mayapuri Community Forest land, located in Shuklaphanta National Park, for the project, and construction has officially begun.

Although plans for the dry port were discussed for over a decade, actual progress only started following the recent decision by the Council of Ministers. Anish KC, Engineer at the Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Committee, confirmed the approval to use the national park land, stating, “We will provide compensation to the park, after which the park office will authorize tree cutting.”

The dry port is being developed with financial and technical support from the Government of India, which has already initiated the tender process. Construction is expected to be completed within three years, with an estimated cost of Rs 5.75bn.

According to Gokarna Awasthi, Director General of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the dry port will open up new opportunities for Sudurpaschim. “If the border is opened, it will facilitate movement between Nepal and India, eliminating the need for long detours,” he said. He emphasized the potential for industrial and agricultural development, particularly with easy access to markets in India’s Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Awasthi also stressed the importance of infrastructure development in Sudurpaschim, calling for improvements in air and road connectivity to support trade. He highlighted the potential for Indian industries to establish branches in Nepal and export goods from the region.

Local business leaders are optimistic about the dry port’s impact. Dinesh Malla, Senior Vice President of the Kanchanpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, “The port will reduce both the cost and time of trade in Sudurpaschim, given its proximity to Indian industrial hubs.”

The Intermodal Transport Development Committee outlined plans to construct two warehouse buildings, a customs check facility, a quarantine building, an immigration office, and a security building. The government first proposed the dry port in 2007, but work stalled until now.

Business leaders believe that the port’s construction will unlock significant economic potential for the region.

Kathmandu Valley witnessed 11 theft incidents and 130 vehicle accidents during this year’s Dashain festival, according to the Kathmandu Valley Police Office, Ranipokhari. The thefts occurred between Sept 3 and Oct 14, with nine cases in Kathmandu, two in Bhaktapur, and none in Lalitpur. Most thefts took place between noon and 6 pm, with criminals targeting homes when residents were away, often breaking locks to gain entry. Several suspects have been arrested.

In the same period, four people lost their lives in vehicle accidents, three due to their own negligence and one in a hit-and-run case.

To address security concerns during Dashain, the police deployed 10,000 officers across the valley, including a 10-member team led by a DSP in 14 areas of Kathmandu. Long and short-range patrols were conducted on 42 routes, with additional QRT, mobile patrols, and ambush checkpoints established to deter crime. Special plainclothes units were also active, and a crime-detection dog was stationed at various checkpoints.

A furious diplomatic row between India and Canada has pushed an otherwise fringe separatist campaign for an independent Sikh homeland in Punjab into the international spotlight. The ‘Khalistan’ campaign dates back to India’s 1947 independence, and has been blamed for the assassination of a prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.

It has been a bitter issue between India and several Western nations with large Sikh populations. New Delhi demands stricter action against the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India, with key leaders accused of ‘terrorism’. Canada has alleged that India arranged the 2023 killing in Vancouver of a Khalistan campaigner, 45-year-old naturalized Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with the murder. 

New Delhi, which wanted Nijjar for alleged terrorism offenses, calls the allegations ‘absurd’. In a separate case, in which New Delhi is cooperating, the United States has accused India of directing a 2023 failed assassination plot in New York. The alleged target was another Khalistan campaigner, dual US-Canadian citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

The US State Department on Wednesday said India had told it that an intelligence operative accused of directing the plot was no longer in government service.

Climate change, along with rapid urbanization and deforestation, turbocharged floods in Nepal that killed more than 240 people last month, scientists said on Thursday. Nepal suffered its worst flooding in decades in late September after ferocious monsoon rains swelled rivers, swamping entire neighborhoods in the capital Kathmandu and other districts.

World Weather Attribution (WWA), a network of scientists who assess the role of human-induced climate change on extreme weather events, said the link between the intense rainfall and a warming planet was clear. “If the atmosphere wasn’t overloaded with fossil fuel emissions, these floods would have been less intense, less destructive and less deadly,” said researcher Mariam Zachariah, from Imperial College London.

Their analysis found the relentless rain, which fell on saturated ground in the late monsoon, was made at least 10 percent heavier and 70 percent more likely by climate change.

They warned that such ‘explosive’ rain bursts will ‘become even heavier, risking more destructive floods’ if the world does not stop burning fossil fuels.

Lashing rain from September 26 sparked floods and landslides that killed 246 people and left 18 missing, according to Nepal’s government.

WWA, which uses modeling to compare weather patterns in our world and one without human-induced climate change, said there was a high level of uncertainty in the results because of the complex rain dynamics in the small, mountainous region affected.

However, the results were in line with growing scientific evidence on large-scale extreme rain in a warming climate, in which the atmosphere holds more water.

The role of climate change was also compounded by other man-made problems, they said, including rapid urbanization, with a nearly four-fold increase in built-up areas in Kathmandu since 1990.

That was coupled with major deforestation that disrupted the natural flow of water, with tree cover slashed by more than a quarter since 1989.

The floods smashed hydropower plants, washed away homes and ripped away bridges. It was the latest disastrous flood to hit the Asian nation this year.

“Climate change is no longer a distant threat,” said Roshan Jha, researcher at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. “With every fraction of a degree of warming, the atmosphere can potentially hold more moisture, leading to much heavier downpours, and catastrophic floods like these.”

Nepal has embarked on a giant hydropower dam building spree, generating 99 percent of its power, with output increasing fourfold in the past eight years.

It has signed deals to export surplus power to neighboring coal-dependent India. Earlier this month, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said that increasingly intense floods and droughts are a ‘distress signal’ of what is to come as climate change makes the planet’s water cycle ever more unpredictable.

WMO chief Celeste Saulo called water the ‘canary in the coal mine of climate change’.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 2.47 points to close at 2,745.36 points on Thursday.

Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 1.31 points to close at 495. 30 points.

A total of 18,807,492-unit shares of 316 companies were traded for Rs 7. 19 billion.

Meanwhile, Goodwill Finance Limited (GFCL) was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 7. 63 percent.

Likewise, Upper Syange Hydropower Limited (USHL) was the top loser as its price fell by 5.19 percent.

At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 4. 36 trillion.

Flooding caused by incessant rains on September 27 and 28 has damaged crops worth more than Rs 340 million in Koshi Province.

The provincial government's Ministry of Industry, Agriculture and Cooperatives stated that the disaster destroyed crops worth Rs 344.58 million in the province.

According to the Ministry, the most damage was inflicted on the rice crop. Rice was cultivated on 275,267.98 hectares of land this year and the flooding and inundation damaged the crop worth Rs 176. 17 million cultivated on 5722.78 hectares, said Dr Deepa Diyali, Chief of the Food Security and Monitoring Division, Koshi Province.

She said the highest damage on rice crop was reported in Khotang district where the flood destroyed the crop on 3,739.3 hectares, followed by Sunsari in which crop cultivated on 824 hectares was damaged, Udayapur where floods destroyed crop in 398.78 hectares, Jhapa where crop on 287 hectares was washed away, Morang where rice cultivated on 244 hectares was destroyed, Bhojpur where crop on 113 hectares was damaged, Tehrathum where crops on 34.75 hectares was flooded and Solukhumbu where the rice crop on 11.2 hectares was damaged.

Likewise, vegetables worth Rs 11. 18 million cultivated on 414.80 hectares, millet worth Rs 37.1 million cultivated on 2357.50 hectares, fruits worth Rs 2. 77 million cultivated on 10.50 hectares and lentils worth Rs 4. 81 million cultivated on 58.60 hectares were damaged due to the flooding, according to the Ministry.

Import of motorcycles via the Birgunj transit point increased by 76.86 percent in the first two months of the current fiscal year 2080-81 (2024-25) compared to the same period last year.

According to the Birgunj Customs Office, a total of 7,120 motorcycles were imported as of September 17 of the current fiscal year, which began on July 16. This marks a significant rise from the 9,264 motorcycles imported during the corresponding period last year. The total value of these motorcycles was Rs 2.78 billion against Rs 1.13 billion last year.

However, the imports of four-wheelers here decreased in the given period, according to Chief Customs Officer Deepak Lamichhane.

Additionally, the import of motorcycle parts, including mopeds, increased from 1,265,627 parts worth Rs 239 million in the first two months of the previous fiscal year to 1,616,531 parts valued at Rs 341.7 million in the same timeframe this year.

An amount over Rs 1.74 billion has been deposited to the Prime Minister Natural Disaster Relief Fund.

According to the details made public by the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the amount was deposited to the fund for disaster survivors as of October 16.

Contributions have also been deposited institutionally and individually to the fund.

Ten organized institutions and Vidyadhar Mallik as an individual donated money to the fund on October 16.

It is informed that the Salt Trading Corporation has contributed Rs 6.1 million, Non-Resident Nepali Association Rs 5.1 million and Rastriya Samachar Samiti Rs 326,038 to the relief fund.

Similarly, Nepal Police Wives Association, Nepal Insurance Company, Electricity Generation Company, among others, have contributed money to the fund.