Budhi Gandaki again awarded to China Gezhouba

Reversing its predecessor’s decision, the government has awarded the contract for development of the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project to China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC), without free competition.
The cabinet today has directed the Energy Ministry to sign agreement for the 1200-MW project to the Chinese company, which had – instead of Energy Ministry – applied directly to the Office of the Prime Minister.
The Office of the Prime Minister has then directed the Energy Ministry to bring a proposal to the cabinet. Energy Minister Barsha Man Pun – according to the Office of Prime Minister's directive – submitted the proposal to today cabinet meeting.
Instead of opening the project for international bidding, the cabinet has directed the Energy Ministry to award the biggest hydropower project to CGGC and sign the agreement after finalising the modality of construction. But the government has not brought policy regarding the engineering, procurement, construction and finance (EPCF) model, under which the Chinese company is planning to construct the project.
The Energy Ministry will now invite the Chinese company for talks and prepare a draft of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) before signing it. "The understanding will be signed to execute the project under the engineering, procurement, construction and financing (EPCF) model,” according to a source at the ministry.
Former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government on May 23, 2017 had decided to award the project to CGGC under the EPCF model without a bidding process. Then energy minister Janardan Sharma had signed the agreement with the Chinese developer.
However, the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government on November 13, 2017 had scrapped the decision to award the $2.5 billion deal with the CGGC and awarded it to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). The government has been collecting fund by charging Rs 5 per litre of petroleum products to construct Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project.
The Dueba-led government had also formed a committee under then National Planning Commission (NPC) vice chair Dr Swarnim Wagle – including finance and energy secretaries, and Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) governor and managing director of NEA – to study investment mode.
The Wagle-led committee had suggested that the government develop the project on its own by providing viability gap funding, covering around one-third of the project’s development cost. The Deuba-cabinet approved the committee report and agreed to provide the gap funding. But the plan never materialised as the government changed before the decision could be minuted. The new administration under Oli, who had publicly criticised Deuba’s decision to scrap the deal with the Chinese company, disowned the previous administration’s decision.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had pledged to revert the decision, if he were elected to power in the elections. Oli became prime minister in February after his Party – Nepal Communist Party (NCP) – scored a landslide poll victory, which according to some experts was funded by the CGGC.
Initially, the project was supposed to be developed under a development committee model. In 2011, the Baburam Bhattarai-led government had formed the Budhi Gandaki Hydroelectric Project Development Committee to execute the project.
The government has allocated Rs 18 billion for compensation payments and operational expenses for this fiscal year, as more than 8,000 households will be affected by the project, according to the report. 

MCC-funded transmission line listed under national pride project

The cabinet today declared a $500-million US government grant-Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)-funded transmission line project as a national pride project making a total of 22 National Pride Projects.
The national pride projects enjoy some relaxation of legal obligations, and their works can be expedited in fast track. "The status of ‘national pride’ helps it to execute the project in the given time frame and encourages them to take rigorous follow-up actions during project management," according to the Office of the Millennium Challenge Account Nepal (MCA-N). "The MCC project has to be completed within five years after the starting."
The MCA-N has started land acquisition for the 300-km-long transmission line project that will be carried out in three different phases: Lapsiphedi-Ratmate-Damauli, Damauli-Sunawal-India border, and Ratmate-Hetauda.
The transmission line – of 400 KVA capacity and is being built with a total investment of $300 million – will become major electricity supply network of the country connecting major cities with major hubs of electricity production from Marshyangdi and Trishuli river basins. The line will also connect with India and will be used to to trade electricity. 
Besides the transmission line, the MCA-N plans to invest the remaining $200 million in six other road maintenance projects including Chaarali-Phidim (130-km), Dharan-Basantapur (88-km), Kadamaha (of Lahan) to Gaighat (26-km), Hetauda-Bhaise-Bhimphedi (22-km), Amelia-Tulsipur (38-km) and a pilot project of 25-km which is yet to begin, but aims at set the best example with the use of latest technology.

Strengthening the UN Special Programme in central Asia

Marking the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA), high-level participants from the seven landlocked participating countries –   Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – recognised the benefits of regional integration and cooperation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the region.
The 2018 SPECA Economic Forum was held in Almaty on September 20-21, followed by the 13th session of the SPECA Governing Council. Jointly organised by the Kazakhstan – the current chair country of SPECA – the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the Forum considered how developments in transport, trade, water, energy, the environment, statistics, ICT and innovation, and gender could transform geographical constraints into advantages, while other integration initiatives could facilitate the economic development of SPECA countries.
The Governing Council and the Forum agreed on a set of practical recommendations for structural reform to address the challenges of sustainable development in the subregion. These recommendations clearly outlined steps for strengthening SPECA as a unique platform to harness regional cooperation for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
“As a UN platform, SPECA can be a forum for the countries and development partners to join forces and work towards progress on sustainable development for the region,” said principal adviser and chief of Sustainable Development and Gender Unit at UNECE, Monika Linn.
Head of the ESCAP subregional Office for North and Central Asia, Hirohito Toda, highlighted that high-transaction costs impede the integration of landlocked developing countries into the global economy. "Integration provides impetus for further economic diversification," he said, adding that such economic transformation, however, needs to consider its impact on gender, as well as the statistics needed to measure the resulting economic, social and environmental change, so that growth is inclusive, broad-based and equitable.
Likewise, first deputy minister of Economic Development and Trade of Tajikistan and chair of the SPECA Working Group on Trade, Zavqi Zavqizoda, added, “Significant progress had been made towards the achievement of SDG target 17.10 on the promotion of a multilateral rules-based trading system under the WTO in the SPECA setting through the regional Trade Policy Forum in Ashgabat, meetings on Aid-for-Trade, and two readiness assessments of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.”
SPECA was established through the Tashkent Declaration of March 26, 1998 to promote regional economic cooperation in Central Asia and the integration of these countries with the economies of Europe and Asia. Stronger subregional cooperation helps countries to fully capitalise on their strategic advantages and jointly address their economic and social challenges.
The SPECA Governing Council elected Turkmenistan to chair the Programme in 2019. The next Economic Forum will focus on connectivity, trade and transport facilitation in the age of the SDGs. The Economic Forum and Governing Council session are scheduled to take place in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in November 2019.

NRA to take initiative to bridge budget gap

The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) is seeking to bridge the budget gap after three years.
According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NRA Sushil Gyewali,  the authority would take initiatives at the national and international level to manage resources to meet the financial requirement to complete the post-earthquake reconstruction.
"The NRA will bridge the financial gap by coordinating with the government and the development partners," Gyewali said, while addressing the eighth meeting of the Development Assistance Coordination and Facilitation Committee (DACFC), the body to coordinate between the government and the development partners to oversee the international contribution in the reconstruction. Representatives of about 25 development partners and international development partners attended today’s meeting.
Gyewali informed the meeting that about Rs 600 billion more is required to complete the overall reconstruction work.
The cost of the five-year reconstruction work had earlier been estimated at Rs 938 billion. The total budgetary expenditure and the projected expenditure this fiscal year would come to around Rs 336 billion.
He, however, said that the actual monetary requirement would be confirmed after the review in the five-year reconstruction plan.
He also said that the NRA would try to acquire the amount pledged by the development partners during the international donors’ conference held soon after the April 2015 earthquake. The development agencies had pledged Rs 410 billion and – out of Rs 343 billion allocated for the reconstruction – the agreements have been signed for Rs 262 billion till now, after spending Rs. 67 billion in relief and rescue work.
Highlighting the progress on the overall reconstruction till date, CEO Gyewali also informed the development partners that the NRA is set to review the Post-Disaster Recovery Framework, prepared after the detailed damage assessment survey in 2016, as the post-earthquake reconstruction reaches a mid-way. The NRA, with the support from the development partners, had published the PDRF 2016-2020 to implement the post-quake reconstruction work in a systematic and structured manner.
“As we are half-way through our tenure, this is the right time to review and (re)design the future priorities,” Gyewali said, adding that it would be done by learning from the experiences till now and best practices we have.
He also informed about the recent decision of the NRA Steering Committee to hand over the responsibility of reconstruction to the local governments and the recent cabinet decision to provide Rs 300,000 loan in a subsidised interest rate.
The representatives of the development partners praised the NRA’s work on private housing reconstruction in the villages and stress the need to focus more on the marginalised groups, who have not been able to rebuild their houses.
They basically raised issues concerning retrofitting of damaged houses, monitoring and evaluation of constructed houses, availability of engineers at the community level, reconstruction of houses for vulnerable groups, third-party monitoring and the capability of the local governments to implement the recent government decision to hand them over the responsibility.
The representatives from the World Bank (WB), the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK Aid, the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation and various other international organisations attended the meeting.

Fact Sheet
• Out of about 800,000 household beneficiaries, more than 90 per cent have received first tranche, 62 per cent second tranche, 32 per cent third tranche and 36 per cent completed their houses.
• Out of about 100,000 household beneficiaries in the Kathmandu Valley, about 93 per cent received first tranche, 30 per cent second tranche and 20 per cent received third tranche
• Out of about 7,500 schools, about 3,800 have been completed and 2,700 are presently under reconstruction
• Out of about 1,200 health institutions, 650 have been completed and 150 are presently under reconstruction
• Out of 753 historic monuments (in 14 districts), 185 have been completed and 310 are presently under reconstruction

Tribhuvan International Airport runway dangerous : Jolly

A senior Indian leader has showed a serious concern for sorry state of the only international airport in Nepal.
Senior BJP leader Vijay Jolly in a urgent communication to Prime Minister KP Sharma 'Oli' has stated that the present Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) runway in Kathmandu, is in poor condition.
The TIA is dangerous and needs immediate re-construction he said in his communication from New Delhi to the Nepal government. The 10,007 feet and 3,050 meter length, only international airport's runway was inaugurated by King Mahendra in 1955. "And it has not been re-constructed during the past 63 years," Jolly said, adding that the tragic crash of US-Bangla Airline plane which resulted in the loss of 49 precious human life's along with the skidding of a Turkish Airline flight TK-726 over shooting the runway should have being a eye opener for Civil Aviation Authorities of Nepal (CAAN).
A Public Sector Innovator Er Dipendra Kandel today met senior BJP leader Vijay Jolly in New Delhi and shared his concerns and worst experiences while on flight WT-337 from Muscat to Kathmandu on August 8. The plane was delayed in the air from landing at TIA, due to runway maintenance issues but the airport communication staff misled the plane captain with fake weather conditions alleged Kandel. 
Dipendra Kandel – writing a letter to tourism minister Rabindra Adhikari – on August 13c had made a similar demand and the government had publically committed to re-construct the TIA runway only after February 28, 2019.
Jolly has termed this as unacceptable and dangerous for all the international airlines and their planes, flying in, landing and taking off from Kathmandu. "The need of the hour is to avoid any technical emergency resulting in further loss of precious human lifves,"  Jolly added.

NOC enforces quota for fuel

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has started rationing of fuel citing depleting stock due to inadequate supply of petroleum products. The quota refueling system effective from today is expected to address the demand for fuel.
The state oil monopoly has directed the fuel stations to refuel motorcycles and scooters with 5 litres of petrol per vehicle, while light weight vehicles, cars and vans will be refueled with maximum of 15 litres of fuel at a time.
Likewise, vehicles plying short distances will get 50 litres of diesel and vehicles covering long distance will get a maximum of 100 litres, according to the NOC that has also directed the petrol pumps to keep ambulances, school buses and government vehicles on priority and refuel them accordingly.
According to NOC spokesperson Birendra Goit, the Nepal Petroleum Dealers' Association (NPDA) – the apex body of private petrol pumps – and Bagmati Petroleum Dealers’ Association (BPDA) have been requested to distribute the fuel based on the quota system.
Petrol pumps across the country have been facing shortage of petroleum products as fuel tanker operators started halting fuel supply from last two days, expressing solidarity with the protest of transporters, who are against a few transport-related provisions in the recently enacted Criminal Code.
A group of transport entrepreneurs, especially those operating tankers, have been staging protest since Tuesday against provisions including 10-year imprisonment for accidents and life imprisonment for causing death in the penal code.
As Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has limited stock of fuel – some 45,000 kilolitres of petrol and diesel, which is sufficient for less than a week, the protest by transport entrepreneurs if prolonged, the fuel supply situation will deteriorate further.
Most of the private petrol pumps were shut, while fuel stations run by Sajha and security forces saw serpentine queues.

Transport operators refuse to open festival ticket booking

Transport operators have backed off from the deal – four days after agreeing – to open bus ticket booking for Dashain,.
Representatives from Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs’ Association (FNNTEA) and Department of Transport Management (DoTM) – on September 16 – had agreed to open bus ticket booking for Dashain from Friday.
The department and transporters had reached the deal to unfreeze the bank accounts of the blacklisted transport committees and review the fare after the festival season.
They have asked the government to adjust the transport fare according to hiked petroleum prices but the government instead hiked in the prices of petroleum products again.
"The government did not give any ear to us forcing us to back off from the commitment to open booking from tomorrow," FNNTEA president Yogendra Karmacharya said, adding that they cannot honour the deal since the government has increased the fuel prices instead of adjusting the earlier hike.
He said the government’s decision to raise the prices of petroleum products contradicted their demand for transport fare revision. "The transport entrepreneurs have long been demanding for a review of transport fare," Karmacharya said, adding that the government has hiked the fuel prices again instead of addressing our concern.
The state oil monopoly had raised the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 2 and Rs 3 per litre respectively on the same day the FNNTEA and the department had agreed to open Dashain ticket booking.
However, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Madhu Sudan Adhikari assured that festival ticket booking service will open.
"We had agreed to facilitate the process of unfreezing the bank accounts of the concerned transport committees," DoTM Spokesperson Gokarna Prasad Upadhyay, said, adding that it is, however, not under the department’s jurisdiction to unfreeze the blacklisted bank accounts, nor revising the fuel prices.