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The Nawalparasi District Court has granted bail totaling Rs 8m to 12 officials of Palhi Multipurpose Cooperative Society in an embezzlement case. The accused include the cooperative’s chairperson, board members, and accounting staff allegedly involved in misappropriating savers’ funds.

The orders were issued on different dates by three separate benches of judges Keshav Prasad Adhikari, Hari Prasad Sharma, and Ramananda Prasad Adhikari, said Janaki Raman Yadav, the court registrar. 

Cooperative Chairperson Ramkishore Teli was ordered to post the bail amount of Rs 1.5m, while Vice-chairperson Nathu Mali and accounts coordinator Santaram Prasad Yadav were each directed to pay Rs 1m. Other board members including Suresh Prasad Chaudhary, Birendra Kumar Yadav, Ramsewak Chaudhary, Rabindra Pasi, Pramod Yadav, and Sugriva Tiwari were granted bail at Rs 500,000 each. Accounts committee members Janaki Devi Kurmi and Izhar Dhuniya, along with management member Ramanand Yadav, were ordered to pay Rs 500,000 each. 

Most of the accused have paid their bail in cash, while some submitted collateral. Meanwhile, three other accused, Kamala Devi Kahar and Sanjay Kurmi, and Munlal Yadav, remain wanted by authorities.

The scandal came to light when 1,041 depositors, mostly local farmers and laborers, were unable to withdraw their savings from the 1,376-member cooperative. The crisis emerged after years of delayed board elections and unaudited financial records, prompting an investigation that uncovered Rs 8.58m in missing funds. A formal case was filed on Feb 23. The court said that refunds to depositors will only be processed after establishing guilt through due process.

The Gwarko Overpass is planned to operate officially from Friday where Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is scheduled to inaugurate the fly over. The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport has informed that vehicles will be operated from the overpass with the inauguration. Last Saturday, the leadership of the Road Department, including Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Devendra Dahal, had inspected the site and directed it to prepare for vehicle operation. Pradeep Bhandari, Senior Divisional Engineer of the Road Department, Quality, Research and Development Center, informed that preparations have been made for vehicle operation with the completion of the main structure of the overpass. The construction of the overpass was started in 2021.

Although the project was scheduled to be completed by Feb 2024, the deadline was extended several times. Bhandari informed that after the construction of the main structure, lane separators, lining, and traffic lights were completed, the vehicle operation is now in a state of readiness, Bhandari said. After the operation of this overpass, vehicles will not have to wait long at Gwarko and will be able to move around continuously.

The government had started the construction of an overpass at Gwarko Chowk to manage the heavy traffic on the Kathmandu Valley Ring Road. The first overpass was built at Gwarko Chowk among the three congested areas on the expanded road section from Koteshwor to Kalanki under the Ring Road Expansion Project. The overpass, which is 6 meters high and 455 meters long, has a ground clearance of 6 meters and a ramp of 180 meters on the right and 110 meters on the left for vehicles to board.

On 24 Feb 2022, Ashish-Samanantar Religare JV won the overpass contract for 176.88m through a national level competition. After it was not completed by the initial deadline, it was extended for two times. As per the said agreement, the 40-meter reconstruction of the overpass was postponed for another month. He said that the target of completing the Gwarko overpass by April 2025 was set, but the construction was postponed for another month due to rain. The overpass under construction at Gwarko Chowk in Lalitpur has been taken forward under the Engineering-Procurement and Construction (EPC) model. Under this model, there is a provision that the contractor company has to pay compensation if the construction is not completed within the specified period. The Road Department, Quality, Research and Development Center, which is paying compensation accordingly, has stated.

After the first extension of the deadline, the construction company had to complete the work by 23 Dec 2024. After that, a compensation of 0.05 percent of the contract cost must be paid for each day after that. It is said that the compensation amount will increase with the delay and will reach a maximum of 10 percent (after 2000 days).

The construction of the Gwarko overpass is expected to ease traffic on the Satdobato-Koteshwor road section of the ring road and the Mangal Bazar-Imadol-Lubu road section. However, it will not solve the traffic jams in the long term, says transportation expert Ashish Gajurel. Although the wide road will provide relief from the traffic jam problem for some time, he says that the problem of traffic jams will recur after the number of vehicles gradually increases.

As the number of vehicles is increasing day by day, the traffic problem is sure to arise again after some time. Traffic management has become a huge challenge in the Kathmandu Valley, where about 1.4m vehicles ply, in recent years. This problem, which has arisen due to the increasing number of vehicles, does not seem to be easily solved immediately. He says that public transport should be operated effectively to reduce traffic pressure. According to him, there are 6.5m registered vehicles in Nepal, where the number of public vehicles is less than 4 percent. 80 percent of the total number of vehicles are motorcycles. “If there is reliable public transport, consumers will change their mode of transport,” he said, “only this will prevent road jams in the long term.”

The Narayangadh-Butwal road section along the East-West Highway has been completely obstructed since last night. 

According to the Nawalpur Police, traffic operation has been disrupted on the highway with the flood sweeping the diversion of the Binayi River in this section and the slippery road at Daunne. 

Information Officer of the Nawalpur Police, Deputy Superintendent of Police Madhu Nepal informed that the flood has washed away the diversion that was placed to pass the vehicles in lack of a bridge. 

Due to continuous rainfall, there has been trouble in operating vehicles on the Dumkibas-Daunne road section, he shared. 

DSP Nepal has urged the vehicle operators to use alternative roads for travel until improvement of road condition in the section. 

He suggested the vehicles from the east to the west should take route via Narayangadh, Muglin, Pokhara, Syangja, and Butwal and the vehicles moving west from Kathmandu should use the route through Muglin, Pokhara, Syangja, and Butwal to reach their destinations. 

Likewise, vehicles traveling east from the west are asked to use Butwal, Syangja, Pokhara, and Muglin routes to reach their destinations. 

Likewise, light vehicle operators are requested to know the condition of the road and use the Gaindakot-Pipaldanda route.

The influence of monsoon winds is continuing in the country. 

With this, there is a possibility of light to moderate rainfall with thunder and lightning in some areas of all provinces. 

There is also a chance of heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in one or two places in Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki, and Lumbini Provinces this afternoon, stated a press release issued today by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. 

There is a possibility of light rain or snowfall in a few areas of the higher hilly and mountain regions of the country. 

According to the department, the weather will generally be partially to mostly cloudy across the country tonight. Light to moderate rainfall along with thunder and lightning is likely to occur in some areas of Koshi, Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces, and a few places in the remaining provinces. 

Heavy to extremely heavy rainfall is also possible in one or two places in Koshi, Madhes, Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces. 

There is a possibility of light rain and snowfall in some areas of the country's high-hilly and mountainous regions.