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Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal expressed his confidence that with the implementation of Sunkoshi-Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project (SMDMP), there will be a quantitative contribution to the national economy.

Inaugurating a breakthrough of the SMDMP tunnel at Kanadhungri of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality-7 in Sindhuli district today, PM Dahal believed that the irrigation system will be improved and the agricultural produce would increase after the project is completed.

"This project will ensure irrigation facility to fertile land of five districts in Madhesh Province which will ensure qualitative contribution in the national economy besides generating electricity," Dahal said, addressing the event after inaugurating the breakthrough.

"The breakthrough of the tunnel under the project has been achieved, the remaining works of the Project would be completed within stipulated time," the PM hoped.

It may be noted that the breakthrough of the 13.3 kilometers long tunnel stretching from Kusumtar, Kamalamai Municipality-2 to Kanadhungri of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality-7 was completed a year ahead of the target.

Stating that the SMDMP was a transformative national project, PM Dahal opined that timely execution of such projects would significantly contribute in the goal of productivity increment and prosperity.

In his address, the Head of the Government mentioned that the breakthrough of the tunnel had infused new energy and encouragement in all of us and has added enthusiasm in construction of huge infrastructures.

Stating that the agriculture sector is the main backbone of Nepal's economic development and a sector to contribute nearly one third to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the PM argued that it was imperative to increase agricultural production and productivity so as to become self-sufficient in food supply, ensure food security and advance economic status of the people.

Sharing that 60 percent of arable land of Nepal is within Terai Madhesh and Inner Madhesh region, PM Dahal said that the irrigation projects being run in Terai-Madhesh zone were based on river water flow system.

Pressing for utilizing water that originated from glaciers for agricultural production, the PM on the occasion pledged to leverage the same source of water for generating electricity, drinking water supply and other purposes for overall development of the country.

Arguing that the goals of good-governance, social justice and prosperity could be achieved through the successful construction of the mega infrastructures, he instructed the concerned parties for timely completion of mega projects.

He also urged cooperation and support from all quarters for timely completion of transformative national projects.

According to him, the successful implementation of the SMDMP had spoken volume for the technical efficiency achieved by the technicians working in hydro power projects and the irrigation sector by optimizing new technology.

He viewed that by optimizing water resources, we could increase agricultural produce and productivity thereby reducing the imbalance of imports.

The PM also expressed that upon the operation of the SMDMP, the demography around Sunkoshi and Tamakoshi river basin area would witness multifaceted development for them.

He opined that fishery and tourism business would also boom in these areas with the operation of the project. The project is expected to provide irrigation facilities on 122, 000 hectares of land in Bara, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari and Dhanusha districts.  

A windstorm blew away the roof of a school building in Dailekh.

The windstorm, coupled with hailstones and rains, blew away the roof of the three—room building of Janakanlyan Higher Secondary School at Smartkort in Dhungeshwor Rural Municipality-2, Dailekh.

According to school principal Khagendra Bahadur Shahi, the windstorm blew away the roof of the three-room building.

He said that the teaching and learning activities in the school have been affected after the incident.

“The students of grade four and five were being taught in the same classroom damaged by the windstorm. One room was brought into use under the mid-day program,” he said.

Principal Shahi said that there is a shortage of classrooms in the school.

He said that the benches, desks, and other educational materials kept inside the room were damaged after a raging windstorm blew away the roof made up of galvanized zinc sheets of the school building.

The roofs of almost all the buildings of the school established in 1961 are old and made up of corrugated zinc sheets.

“Seven other buildings of the school are 25 to 30 years old. All these buildings have the roofs with galvanized zinc sheets,” Principal Shahi said, adding, “We always have to live in constant fear thinking that the strong wind would blow away the roofs of the school buildings.”

“The buildings having roofs with old corrugated zinc sheets are very unsafe for the children,” he further said.

The school has 10 buildings. Among them, only two are concrete.

None of the authorities have given interest in reconstructing the buildings, Principal Shahi said. There are around 600 students up to class 12.

The school is considered as one the best schools in the district in educational quality although it has weak physical infrastructure.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved an $80m development policy credit for Nepal to strengthen the stability of the financial sector, diversify financial solutions, and increase access to financial services.

The third Finance for Growth Development Policy Credit aims to improve the functioning of the financial sector to support private sector-led growth. The operation will strengthen the supervision of the banking and insurance sectors in Nepal and foster financial product innovations in capital, insurance, and disaster risk markets. The operation will also increase financial inclusion through digitalization, enhanced credit infrastructure and improved financial literacy, with a focus on women entrepreneurs.

“This project supports Nepal’s green, resilient, and inclusive development and will help create an enabling environment for private investment to contribute to Nepal’s economic growth, particularly benefiting the poor and vulnerable,” said Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. 

The operation also supports Nepal’s climate agenda by, for example, enhancing supervision of climate risks by requiring disclosures of climate-related risks and impacts of the banking sector portfolio; introducing risk-informed pricing for insurance products, including climate risks; establishing a framework for the issuance of green bonds; and integrating climate-related mitigation and adaptation commitments into credit guarantee products.

“This operation supports the government’s transformative financial sector reform agenda to promote private sector-led growth. The reforms in banking, insurance, and capital markets are instrumental for the sector’s resilience and the critical role it plays to enable private capital mobilization,” stated Tatsiana Kliatskova, World Bank task team leader for the project.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 0. 21 points to close at 1,960.60 points on Wednesday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 0. 17 points to close at 349. 40 points.

A total of 5,874,967-unit shares of 305 companies were traded for Rs 2. 54 billion.

Meanwhile, Infinity Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited (ILBS) was the top gainer today with its price surging by 9. 99 percent. Likewise, Kumari Sabal Yojana (KSY) was the top loser with its price fell by 10. 00 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 10 trillion. 

Jordan Chhetri, a cancer survivor, has embarked on an expedition to climb Mt Everest to raise money for the hospital that cared for him. He was 14 when the doctor told him that he had State 4 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He beat the disease after nine months of intensive treatment and set up a charity, Perform with Purpose, to raise money for children with cancer by climbing Mt Everest. He also aims to be the first Nepali/English cancer survivor to stand on the Everest summit. In an interview with ApEx, Chhetri talked about his preparation for the Everest expedition. Excerpts: 

How is your health now?

I am in very good health. I have been training for this purpose for 14 months now.

How did it feel to get permission to climb Mount Everest given your health condition?

When I spoke with my doctor about this project, he said it's absolutely fine. I was ecstatic when those words came out.

You were diagnosed with cancer at the age of 13. What was that time like?

It was a strange feeling. I cannot describe this; you have this thing inside of you, threatening to take your life. So it felt scary, to say the least. No one knows how it happens; sometimes it just does, and I am okay with that. I underwent intense chemotherapy which lasted for around nine months. One does not really return to normalcy because there is always a fear of it coming back. But I learned early on that if you dwell on that fear, you will only get depressed and worried. I do not have enough hours in the day to worry about things I can not control.

I am 29 years old now. I will be the first Nepali/English cancer survivor in history to summit the massive mountain! I am doing this for the support of the Southampton Hospitals Charity, for children coming to be treated at the same hospital where I received treatment, inside the Southampton Charity Hospital, specifically on the 5th floor, in the Piam Brown Ward.

How long have you been in Nepal? What kind of preparations are being made for your expedition?

I have been in Nepal for 22 days now. I have been learning and training with the British Gurkha Training Centre in Pokhara. These guys, who are striving to be elite, are something else -hardworking and dedicated to their craft. I am currently in Namche Bazaar, taking an active rest day. This place is beautiful. I have no other words to describe Namche. All the preparatory works, including training, gear check, and briefing, have been completed. I have already received a permit to summit Everest.

You have come to Nepal to climb Mount Everest. Does it have any purpose, or is it just your hobby?

I came to Nepal to learn about the country and climb the world's tallest mountain to test my limits and see how far I can push my body. This mountain is the perfect place for that.

Do you also have plans to support cancer patients in Nepal?

I reached out to some Nepali cancer charities, but none of them ever got back to me. So, I have been raising money solely for the Piam Brown Ward of the Southampton Hospitals.

Who else is in your Everest expedition team?

I am climbing with Gelje Sherpa of AGA Adventures. These guys have been nothing short of amazing, helping me with all my administration work. Adrianna Brownlee of AGA Adventures has been on call 24/7 to answer any questions I had leading up to my project.

A tunnel breakthrough of the Sunkoshi-Marin Diversion Multi-purpose Project has been achieved.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal inaugurated the tunnel breakthrough amidst a program at Kanadhungri, Sunkoshi Rural Municipality-7 today.

After the Prime Minister pressed on the TBM switch, the TBM machine that had entered the tunnel from Kusumtar of Kamalamai Municipality-2 for digging the tunnel exited from the tunnel from the other side at Kanadhungri on the bank of the Sunkoshi River.

The tunnel stretches from Kusumtar, Kamalamai Municipality-2 to Kanadhungri of Sunkoshi-7. It is 13.3 kilometres long.

Project Chief Mitra Baral said they have been successful to accomplish the breakthrough a year ahead of the target. The breakthrough of the tunnel has been achieved in 19 months of the start of digging of the tunnel.

According to Baral, the tunnel was dug up to 72 meters on a single day. The works of digging the tunnel had started on October 14, 2022. However, the work on digging up the tunnel was disrupted six times since then. The works were stalled as the TBM machine could not dig the tunnel further up due to the dry landslide and mudslide inside the tunnel.

The tunnel has a diameter of 5.5 meters and the quality segment has been used for building the tunnel with the help of high technology. A 30 meters high and 158 meters long dam would be constructed across the Sunkoshi River at Kanadhungri and the water from the dam channeled through the tunnel to Marinkhola stream at Kusumtar.

At Kusumtar, the water would be dropped through penstock pipe from a height of 66 meters to generate 31.07 megawatts of electricity.

The Chinese construction company, China Overseas Engineering has got the contract for the construction of the tunnel. This company has carried out tunnel construction work of the Bheri Babai Diversion Project before this.

Project Chief Baral informed that COVEC was awarded the contract worth Rs 10 billion 50 million and 680 thousand for digging the tunnel alone.

The Project aims to provide irrigation water and produce electricity for the five districts of the Madhes throughout the year.

Along with power generation, the main objective of the project is to provide irrigation facilities on 122 thousand hectares of land in Bara, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari and Dhanusha districts of Terai by using the infrastructure of Bagmati irrigation project.

According to the project, the total cost of the project is Rs 49.42 billion.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal asserted that the policies, program and budget for the upcoming fiscal year would be introduced in a new manner.

Addressing the party cadres at Mulkot of Sunkoshi rural committee of CPN (Maoist Center) today, PM Dahal, also Chairperson of the CPN (Maoist Center), claimed that the national economy had improved a lot since he held the reign of the government. "Economy has improved a lot since I assumed the leadership of the government."

PM Dahal said that the upcoming policy, program and budget would be formulated by targeting those lagging behind in economic index thereby laying the foundation of socialism.

To make the government's upcoming policy and program more people-oriented, he said that suggestions would be solicited from various parties.

Furthermore, the Head of the Government said that the incumbent government had firmly taken forward the campaign for good-governance, social justice and prosperity, and had set a new record in the campaign of good-governance.

According to him, the incumbent government had worked hard to deliver justice for loan shark victims, to control smuggling of gold and bring to book the culprits of Lalita Niwas land grab scam among others.

He reaffirmed the commitment to continue with the pro-public works despite the fact that a few people did not like the reformative actions spearheaded by the government.

On a different note, the PM mentioned that the incumbent government had promoted Nepal's relations with international communities in a balanced manner and diplomatic relations of Nepal with other countries were further becoming stronger with the exchange of high-level visits in recent days.

Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation and CPN (Maoist Center) Deputy General-Secretary Shakti Bahadur Basnet, Member of Parliament from Sindhuli district, Lekhnath Dahal, party leader and former Minister Haribol Gajurel and Bagmati Province Assembly member Yuwaraj Chaulagain, among others were present in the program.

CPN-UML candidate Suhang Nembang, who was elected to the House of Representatives from Ilam-2, took the oath of office and secrecy on Wednesday.

Speaker Devraj Ghimire administered the oath of office and secrecy to Nembang amidst a function organized at the hall of Agriculture Committee in Singha Durbar this afternoon.

Deputy Speaker Indira Rana, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Padam Giri, Defense Minister Hari Prasad Uprety, chief whips of various political parties and Parliament Secretariat General Secretary Padam Prasad Pandey among others were present on the occasion.

Nembang defeated Nepali Congress candidate Dambar Khadka by a margin of 5, 830 votes in the by-election held on April 27.

Nembang mustered 27, 772 votes while his closest contender Khadka garnered 21, 942 votes.

The by-election was held in Ilam-2 after the demise of Subash Nembang, father of Suhang Nembang.