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One hundred and seventy-four out of 292 vehicles have failed the pollution test conducted by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

The number of vehicles failing in the pollution test is 60 percent of the total vehicles subjected to the test.

Of these, 14 failed when 71 petrol-powered vehicles were tested and 160 failed when 221 diesel-run vehicles were subjected to the test.

According to KMC, 160 of the 221 diesel-run vehicles have failed the pollution test.

KMC Assistant Spokesperson Dhurba Kumar Kafle said the vehicles have been checked as per the Environment and Natural Resources Act, 2077 BS, the Pollution Control Standards, 2081 BS and Waste Collection and Transportation Procedure, 2081 BS.

KMC has been checking vehicles lately to reduce the impact of vehicular pollution. Owners of vehicles failing the pollution test have been suggested to repair their vehicles within a certain time period and operate them as per the standards.

Preparations are being made to gradually bring the vehicles that do not meet the criteria under the purview of action and stop their operation after giving them an opportunity, through the awareness program started from January 13, to make improvements.

So far, petrol and diesel- run vehicles plying through Koteshwor, Durbarmarg, Chakrapath Balkhu, Babarmahal, Teku, Sukedhara, Sinamangal, Panipokhari and Jamal have been tested.

Among the vehicles found to have failed in the pollution test are buses operating for public transport services, school buses, jeeps operated by government offices, trucks, among others.

KMC's Department of Environment Management is carrying out the pollution checking of vehicles in collaboration with the Department of Environment, the Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police Office and the Metropolitan Police Force.

India has called a tender for the construction of a dry port at Dodhara Chandani Municipality-1 in Kanchanpur district.

The Indian side announced a tender after the agreement between the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board (NITDB) to cut down trees at the dry port construction site.

India invited a tender at Rs 2.54 billion for the construction of the dry port.

Executive Director of the NITDB, Ashish Gajurel, said activities for the construction of dry port would be started soon.

"The Indian side has already announced a tender. Activities to count the trees last time in order to remove them are also underway from our side. The final report will be received by Sunday and then we will invite bids in this regard", he mentioned.

Activities for the construction of Integrated Check Post from India would begin once the activities of site clearance are completed.

The governments of Nepal and India had on June 1, 2023 signed an agreement for the construction of the dry port with the help of financial and technical support of the Indian government.

Various infrastructures including two go down buildings, customs checking building, quarantine building, immigration building, security building would be constructed on 42.36 hectares of land to be used for integrated check post, shared NITDB.

Twenty species of birds were found during a survey of water birds conducted in Banke a few days ago.

Such species of birds were found along the Sikta area from Kusum of Rapti river and different lakes and rivers in the district.

Ruddy Shelduck, Siberian birds and birds migrating from Russia were recorded during the census, said Ornithologist Ram Shahi.

He added that garbage piled at ponds and lakes has shrunk the habitat of the aquatic birds. "The habitats of birds are also at risk due to noise pollution at picnic sites located near ponds and lakes," Shahi added.

Aquatic birds including Gadwall, Lesser Whistling Duck were also found in the course of the survey. A total of 276 birds were recorded in the survey conducted by Banke National Park and Buffer Zone community.

Information Officer at the Banke National Park, Mandeep Pangeni, shared that a team comprising Ornithologist Joshi had conducted the two-day survey and different species of birds were found at surrounding areas of Rapti river, local forest, Kanti and Sutaiya ponds and their habitats were found safe.

He expressed the belief that surveys conducted every year would help for the management of habitats of the birds.

The death toll in the Jalgaon train accident has gone up to 13 with the recovery of a headless body along the railway tracks, police said on Thursday.

Some passengers of the Mumbai-bound Pushpak Express, who got off the train after an alarm chain-pulling incident, were run over by the Karnataka Express heading from Bengaluru to Delhi on the adjacent tracks in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district on Wednesday evening.

"Of the 13, we have identified eight bodies so far, including two from their Aadhaar cards,"Special Inspector General of Police Dattatraya Karale told PTI.

The eight identified deceased include four hailing from Nepal, Jalgaon district information officer Yuvraj Patil told PTI.

As per the list provided by authorities, the four Nepalis have been identified as Kamala Navin Bhandari (43) (who lived at Colaba in Mumbai), Javakala Bhate (60) (who resided at Bhiwandi in Thane), Lachchiram Khataru Pasi (40) and Imtiyaz Ali (11).

Out of the 15 persons injured in the incident, 10 were currently undergoing treatment - nine at the Pachora civil hospital and one at a medical facility in Jalgaon city- while the others who suffered minor injuries were discharged, he said.

Meanwhile, the Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak Express reached the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), its final destination in the Maharashtra capital, at around 1.20 am on Thursday, a railway spokesperson said.

The Central Railway's general manager and other senior officials also reached the accident spot at night and inspected the site, he said.

They also visited the hospitals where the injured persons were taken for treatment.

The tragedy unfolded on Wednesday evening when passengers onboard the Pushpak Express, fearing a blaze, hastily jumped onto the adjacent tracks and were run over by the oncoming Karnataka Express, officials earlier said.

The accident took place between Maheji and Pardhade stations near Pachora town in north Maharashtra's Jalgaon district, when the Pushpak Express halted after someone pulled the chain at around 4. 45 pm on Wednesday, Central Railway officials said.

Dilip Kumar, Executive Director, Information and Publicity, Railway Board, however, denied that any spark or fire inside the coach caused passengers to pull the alarm.

In a video message from Davos in Switzerland, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said, "Some passengers in the train mistakenly assumed that smoke was coming out of the train and they jumped. Unfortunately, they were run over by another train."

The CM announced a financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of the passengers who died in the tragedy.

The Railway Board separately announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1.5 lakh each to the kin of the deceased, Rs 50,000 for grievous wounds and Rs 5,000 for simple injuries. PTI