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Finnish Ambassador to Nepal Riina-Riikka Heikka paid a courtesy call on Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizens Bhagwati Chaudhary on Thursday.

During the meeting held at Minister Chaudhary’s office in Singh Durbar this afternoon, they discussed strengthening the relations between the two countries, cooperation on women, children, senior citizens and gender and sexual minorities among other issues.

On this occasion, Minister Chaudhary said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations on September 21, 1974, the relationship between the two countries has been harmonious, stating that Nepal attaches great importance to the relations based on friendship, amity and cooperation with Finland.

Minister Chaudhary expressed the belief that Finland's support will be fruitful for Nepal in the efforts to uplift the socio-economic status, especially the rural communities of Nepal, and thanked the Finnish government and people for extending their helping hands to Nepal during the difficult time of Covid-19.

Mentioning that Nepal is aiming to upgrade from underdeveloped country status in 2026 and become a middle-income country by 2030, Minister Chaudhary said that Nepal is striving to achieve the goals of sustainable development.

"I would like to thank Finland for advocating climate change together with Nepal in various multilateral forums," she said.

In the meeting, Ambassador Heikka said that to strengthen the bilateral relationship between Nepal and Finland, they will cooperate for bilateral development, according to the Secretariat of Minister Chaudhary.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 4.78 points to close at 2,035.64 points on Thursday.

The sensitive index, however, plunged by 0.36 points to close at 359. 09 points.

A total of 6,614,445-unit shares of 313 companies were traded for Rs 2. 65 billion.

Meanwhile, Himalaya Urja Bikas Company Limited (HURJA) was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 10. 00 percent. Likewise, Unnati Sahakarya Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited (USLB) and Dhaulagiri Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited (DLBS) were the top losers as their price fell by 10.00 percent.

At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 22 trillion.

National Assembly Vice-Chairperson Urmila Aryal resigned on Thursday.

She submitted the resignation to National Assembly Chairman Narayan Prasad Dahal.

Aryal was elected unopposed as the National Assembly Vice-Chairperson on January 17, 2023.

After Dahal was elected as the Chairman from the CPN (Maoist Center) in the ruling coalition, she tendered her resignation in consensus.

While forming a new coalition, an agreement was reached among the four parties that the Chairman of the National Assembly would be from the Maoist Center and the Vice-Chairperson of the CPN-UML.

A day after taking a decision to withdraw the support extended to the government, Sudurpaschim Province Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah has assigned the responsibility to two ministers participating in the provincial government from the Nagarik Unmukti Party.

According to the Chief Minister's Secretariat, Chief Minister Shah has appointed Laxman Kishor Chaudhary as the Minister for Social Development and Khushiram Dagaura Tharu as the Minister for Industry, Tourism, Forests and Environment.

Earlier, both of them were appointed as ministers without portfolio.

Damodar Pandit, spokesperson of the party, informed that the meeting of the founding members of the party held in Tikapur on Wednesday decided to support the coalition in the central government and withdraw the support to the province government.

Along with this, Nagarik Unmukti Party will have four ministers and one state minister in the Sudurpaschim government.

The Budhi Gandaki Hydroelectric Project was first identified in 1978, while the first feasibility study was conducted in 1998. However, the government spent all these years debating whether to construct it with domestic or foreign investment. The 12,000 MW-capacity reservoir project is seen as an example of a project that has been unable to rise above political intrigues. The government has now decided to implement the project by mobilizing internal resources.

The Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation has finalized the project’s investment modality and sent it to the finance ministry for approval. A committee formed by the energy ministry has proposed to the government to own 51 percent stakes in the company to be formed to implement the project.

The committee, led by Joint Secretary Nabin Raj Singh of the energy ministry, proposed the modality. Arjun Kumar Gautam, CEO of the Hydroelectricity Investment and Development Company Limited (HIDCL), Dr Jagat Kumar Shrestha, CEO of the Budhi Gandaki Hydroelectric Company Limited, and the ministry’s Senior Divisional Engineer Raju Maharjan were in the committee.

HIDCL CEO Gautam said that the government can now proceed with the implementation of the project based on the committee’s report.

According to the report, the estimated cost of the project is around Rs 310bn. The committee has proposed a 70:30 debt-to-equity ratio, which means 30 percent of the project cost will be equity investment and the remaining 70 percent will be loan investment. The committee has suggested to the ministry to mobilize equity investment from the government, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), public entities, and through an IPO from the general public and project-affected locals. Likewise, it has proposed seeking Rs 139.91bn concessional loan and Rs 78.35bn commercial loan.

The committee has also suggested investing money collected from infrastructure tax levied on petroleum products in the project. The government started collecting infrastructure tax on petroleum imports in 2016 when finance minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel levied Rs 5 per liter infrastructure tax on diesel and petrol imports at the customs point.

Excluding the Viability Gap Funding (VGF), the government’s total investment in the project will be Rs 186.93bn. The total government investment will be Rs 260.13bn if VGF is accounted for. VGF refers to investments that the government supports projects that are economically justified but fall short of financial viability.

Gautam said that the provision of VGF has been recommended in the report to make the project financially viable to to raise commercial loans and investment through IPO. The committee has recommended raising Rs 18.44bn through an IPO.

The committee has suggested that the government levy an annual interest rate of one percent for the concessional loans, with a loan tenure of 50 years, including an 8-year construction period. It has suggested forming a consortium of co-financiers, including the Employee Provident Fund, Citizen Investment Trust, HIDCL, Social Security Fund, and commercial banks, to arrange the necessary commercial loans for the project. According to the financial plan, the developer can raise up to Rs 20bn through energy bonds issued by HIDCL.

The committee has recommended to the government to start project implementation in 2024/25 and complete it by 2031/32. According to the proposal, the project will need Rs 17.37bn in the first year, Rs 19.01bn in the second year, Rs 23.81bn in the third year, Rs 41.67bn in the fourth year, Rs 44.95bn in the fifth year, Rs 82.49bn in the sixth year, Rs 2.43bn in the seventh year, and Rs 38.74bn in the final year.

The project is of strategic importance as it provides multi-faceted benefits such as irrigation, drinking water, fisheries, water transportation, flood control, and tourism along with hydropower generation. The construction of the Budhi Gandaki Hydroelectric Project can be seen as an opportunity for the integrated utilization of domestic capital. Moreover, the electricity generated from the project can positively impact the country’s economy by displacing the billions of rupees spent annually on importing petroleum products.

The National Planning Commission had formed a committee under the leadership of its then Vice-chair Dr Swarnim Wagle in 2017 to prepare an investment framework for the construction of the Budhi Gandaki Hydroelectric Project. The Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, secretaries of the finance and energy ministry, managing director of NEA, and a joint secretary of the energy ministry were members of the committee.

The committee had suggested forming a subsidiary company under NEA to implement the project by mobilizing investment from Employees Provident Fund, Citizens Investment Trust, Rastriya Beema Company, HIDCL, Nepal Telecom, Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Ltd, CHilime Hydropower Ltd, welfare funds of Nepal Army and Nepal Police, among others. It has also suggested to the government to invest about 35 percent of the project cost as VGF through concessional loans or by utilizing funds collected as infrastructure tax.

Likewise, another study committee led by NEA’s Deputy Executive Director Pradip Kumar Karki suggested that the government invest Rs 73bn as VGF and make a 70:30 equity and loan ratio. It suggested that equity investment could be raised from NEA, Employees Provident Fund, Nepal Telecom, Citizens Investment Trust, and insurance companies, etc.

Continuous rainfall is taking place in Bagmati, Koshi and Gandaki Provinces due to the influence of the Westerly wind.

Cloudy weather along with rainfall will continue throughout the country for some days, according to the Meteorological Forecasting Division, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.

Meteorologist at the Department Govinda Kumar Jha said the westerly wind, local wind and the moisture-laden wind coming from the Arabian Sea currently influencing the weather in Nepal.

"The weather is partly to generally cloudy throughout the country, including in the Kathmandu Valley at present. This trend will continue for some days," he added.

Air flights in the country have been generally affected due to the adverse weather.

According to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), both domestic and international flights have been affected due to poor visibility.

Airport spokesperson Subas Jha said that some international flights were affected due to low visibility.

Jha said an Air China plane has been 'diverted' while other planes have been put on hold. Even now, the aircraft of Sichuan Airlines is on hold.

"The visibility of the airport is poor due to adverse weather. An hour ago, the visibility was only 1,600 meters, but now it is 2,500 meters. "International flights on hold have started to land gradually," said spokesman Jha. There are no domestic flights at Pokhara International Airport as well. However, regular flights are operating at airports in the Terai region.

At Tribhuvan International Airport, 30 airlines, including three Nepalis, are operating international flights.

Similarly, 20 air service providers including 12 helicopter companies are providing flight services at domestic level.

After two years of completion, the Chovar Dry Port in Kathmandu has begun services.  

Currently, two hundred cars are waiting for customs clearance. 

Businessperson Bibhor Kumar Agrawal is visiting the dry port regularly for some days to proceed with the customs for cosmetic goods imported from Italy. 

The custom clearance for new vehicles has begun at Chovar Dry Port after the agreement forged with NADA Automobiles Association. It has resulted in the arrival of businesspersons seeking services here.

With no direct access to sea, Nepal has 14 dry ports, among which, Chovar Dry Port is the latest and modern facility. Most of the dry ports are constructed at borders- with China or with India. 

The latest one is now close to the main market of the country.

The businesspersons are provided spaces in the dry port to store their imports. They can use the spaces as internal depots.

Godown, rack, and equipment to un/load consignments are provided in the dry port. Arrangement of CCTV, security persons, container management and bank service are other features to equip the customs clearance. 

The dry port is spacious for as many as 500 containers. 

Executive Director at Chovar Dry Port, Ashish Gajurel, said if it is to be operated in a full scale, an environment should be created to bring the imports directly to this facility. Similarly, it can be used for final checks to exports as well. “It is however not possible at present because the imports are checked initially at border customs, including Birgunj checkpoint. Then they arrive here. It is therefore a hassle to ferry any consignment at this dry port and move to other places,” he explained.  

Gajurel however informed that once the expressway comes into operation, the exporters and importers would be free of present hassles.