Quake damages 23 houses in Bajura
Twenty-three houses were completely damaged by an earthquake at Bichchhya in Himali Rural Municipality-2 of Bajura district on Friday. An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale with its epicenter at Dahakot, Gaumul Rural Municipality struck the district at 1.30 am. Chief Administrative Officer of Himali Rural Municipality Raj Bahadur Bhandari said that 23 houses were damaged by the tremor in Bichchhya. The houses of Dhanjit Budha, Dantir Budha, Joblal Budha, Naule Budha, Dil Bahadur Budha and Saurmal Rokaya were completely damaged. Similarly, the houses of Basu Rokaya, Surendra Budha, Duwalal Budha, Dev Bahadur Budha, Pancha Rokaya, Surendra Budha, Jaggi Bohara, Saimal Bohara, Surja Bohara, Jas Thapa, Bhayadhan Thapa, Purna Thapa, Kusum Khadka, Bachmal Rokaya, Kala Rokaya, Surja Khadka and Gellal Khadka were also completely damaged by the quake. Chief District Officer Pushkar Khadka said that the district administration is collecting the information on the damage caused by the earthquake in coordination with the Chief Administrative Officer and the rural municipality ward chairperson.
Motorbike hit kills pedestrian in Chitwan
A pedestrian died after being hit by a motorbike at Sajhapur in Bharatpur Metropolitan City-28, Chitwan on Thursday. The deceased has been identified as Jalawa Mahato (55) of the area. Seriously injured Mahato died while receiving treatment at the Bharatpur Hospital, Spokesperson of the District Police Office, Chitwan, Bijayaraj Pandit said. The motorbike (Na 22 Pa 6800) hit him at around 9 pm yesterday. Bike rider Shiva Narayan Mahato (34) of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-27 has sustained injuries and is receiving treatment at Chitwan Medical College.
NAC aircraft makes successful test flight at Resunga Airport
A Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) plane made a successful test flight in Resunga Airport at 7:39 am today. NAC's plane (9N-ABT) departed from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Kathmandu, landed at Resunga Airport in Simichaur of Resunga Municipality-10 in Gulmi. The NAC made a test flight today for commercial flights as per the agreement between the NAC and municipality. Spokesperson of the Nepal Airlines Operators Association Yograj Kandel said that plans are afoot for the commercial flights after today's successful test flight. He said that the NAC will begin commercial flight after carrying out needed assessment from a technical team. According to Kandel, the travel fare and the number of passengers in a flight would be determined after the study. "However, the plane fare could be around Rs 6,000 per person for the Resunga-Kathmandu flight," he added. Captain Manish Bista of NAC said that regular flights would be conducted after submitting today's flight report to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) within a week. Construction of the airport was completed some months ago after 16 years of its commencement. Constructed with the investment of Rs 330 million, the airport's runway is 520 meters long and 20 meters wide. Located at an elevation of 1,526 meters above the sea level, the airport is spread over 156 ropani of land. After the successful test flight, Mayor of Resunga Municipality Khildhowj Panthi expressed his happiness stating that the dream of folks here to travel to Kathmandu by plane is being materialized soon.
Rain coupled with thunder likely today
With the impacts of the westerly wind in the country, there is probability of partial to general rainfall in the hilly belt of Koshi, Gandaki, Karnali and Sudurpaschim Provinces. The Weather Forecasting Division said that weather will be mainly fair in other parts of the country. Isolated brief rain or thundershowers is possible at a few places of the hilly regions of Gandaki Province, Karnali Province and Sudurpashchim Province and at one or two places of hilly regions of the rest of the provinces, the Division said. Tonight, there will be partly cloudy in the hilly areas and mainly fair to partly cloudy in Tarai areas. Isolated brief rain or thundershowers is possible at one or two places of hilly regions of Koshi Province and Gandaki Province tonight.



