NRA starts orientation to new engineers

The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has started a three-day orientation training for newly appointed engineers, who will be mobilised to carry out resurvey of private homes. The 332 newly appointed engineers will be mobilised to handle complaints registered by people in the 14 districts that were highly affected by the devastating earthquake of April 2015.
Among the selected engineers, 168 engineers will be mobilised in Okhaldhunga, Ramechhap, Dolakha, Sindhupalchowk, Kavrepalanchowk, Nuwakot, Rasuwa and Gorkha from August 10. Likewise, the NRA will mobilise the remaining 164 engineers in the other six districts that include Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Sindhuli, Makawanpur and Dhading from August 14. The move followed by massive complaints from the earthquake survivors on segregation of beneficiaries based on several criteria will resurvey houses and come out with the actual number of beneficiaries by mid-October.
On the occasion, secretary of the NRA Sarbajit Prasad Mahato, urged the engineers to settle the complaints of quake-hit people in a speedy manner. The major task of the engineers will be to verify the complaints registered by those who were left out from the beneficiary list, he said, adding that they also have to handle other complaints lodged by affected people.
According to the NRA data, a total of 207,500 quake-hit people have registered complaints at the authority that has planned to do survey in eight districts in the first phase in collaboration with the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
The authority is planning to collect on-field statistics of the 14 districts within September 16. During this process, it will verify status of 81,082 families, who have already been included in beneficiary list and status of 52,278 families, who have been left out of the list.
NRA has already looked into complaints filed by households which had not been included in the beneficiary list and included 39,097 families in the list. Likewise, 13,565 families who needed their houses to be retrofitted have been included in the ‘retrofitting’ list.
According to NRA, a large number of complaints filed in Sindhuli, Makawanpur, Kavrepalanchowk and Dolakha districts have to be verified again. The number of complaints that need to be verified again are lower in Rasuwa, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur.
Meanwhile, the authority has deputed local social mobilisers and engineers to carry out the resurvey in coordination with newly elected local representatives.
It has also appealed the people in affected districts, local representatives, political parties and other related agencies for help in making this campaign a success.

House panel team to carry out onsite monitoring of land purchased by NOC

After increased controversy, the Industry, Commerce and Consumer Welfare Committee – under the Legislature-Parliament – has decided to carry out an onsite visit of the land purchased by Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) for petroleum storage in four districts.
Committee chair Bhishmaraj Angdembe in today's meeting said that a group of lawmakers including those elected from Jhapa, Sarlahi, Chitwan and Rupandehi districts will be sent for the onsite monitoring. "The groups will collect real facts by holding discussion with representatives of concerned offices, people's representatives of local-level and locals of the area, where the NOC had purchased the land, of the four districts," he added.
On the occasion, Lawmakers Subas Chandra Thakuri, Bhesh Kumari Raut, Krishna Prasad Poudel, Shambhu Lal Shrestha, Deepak Karki and Shyam Kumar Shrestha stressed the need of carrying out comprehensive probe into the land purchase scandal.

Contractor okays Dhalkebar project October deadline

The Central Power Grid International Economic and Trade Corporation (CCPG) – that is constructing 220 kV Substation Project at Dhalkebar – has pledged to meet the deadline of October 2017 after a high level team led by energy minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi directed the Chinese contractor.
On the occasion, project manager of CCPG Geng Jialing, said that the project can be completed within the next two months, if the contractor is provided necessary resources promptly. "The government should also assure working environment in the project site," he said.
A high-level team led by energy minister included energy secretary Anup Kumar Upadhyay and NEA managing director Kulman Ghising. They visited the construction site today and asked the Chinese contractor to start the construction work at war footing to complete the job on time. Responding to the team's direction, the contractor agreed to meet the deadline of October 2017.
The monitoring team had also concluded that though almost 80 per cent of the construction work was completed, the remaining work was delayed due to lack of coordination between the contractor and the consultant company of the project regarding bill payments and cable trench.
The representative of Power Grid Corporation of India – the consultant of the project – on the occasion also agreed to provide final drawing of the cable trench required for the project to the contractor to expedite the construction.
Earlier, the contractor had stopped all the work at the construction site a couple of weeks ago without formally informing Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). Although, the Chinese contractor resumed the construction of crucial substation a week later, it was carrying out the work at a snail’s pace, raising doubts over project completion well before the dry season to enable the country to increase electricity imports from India.
NEA managing director Ghising, on the occasion, said that CCPG should complete the Dhalkebar substation project by the October deadline as project carries national significance.
As NEA had terminated the contract of CCPG, which was also working in the Bharatpur-Bardaghat transmission line on June 5, the contractor had begun showing dissatisfaction with NEA by delaying work at the Dhalkebar substation project, which was supposed to be completed by early 2017.
Promising to solve as soon as possible, Minister Shahi asked the contractor to report any work related problems immediately from the project level directly to him.
If the project is not completed by October, it will hit the power utility’s plan to increase electricity imports from India via Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur cross-border transmission line during the dry season.
The state-owned power utility has repeatedly said it will be difficult to keep the country load-shedding free during the dry season, if the substation at Dhalkebar is not completed on time. The country's power demand is expected to increase by around 200 MW then.
Even though the installed capacity of domestic hydroelectricity is expected to go up by additional 130MW during next dry season, power generation is expected to drop by a third around that time when water level goes down in most of the river basins.
If the 220 kV sub-station is built at Dhalkebar by that time, the country can import another 100 MW of power from India theough Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur cross-border transmission line.
Currently, the cross-border transmission line has the capacity to import 160 MW of electricity only. According to agreement signed between NEA and the Chinese company in June 2014, the sub-station should have been up and running by September 2015. But the deadline has been repeatedly pushed back. The October deadline was extended recently.
The CCPG and NEA had signed the Dhalkebar substation project contract on June 12, 2014 with a target to complete it within 15 months.

RBB, NIDC merger talks gathers momentum

The merger process between state-owned Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) and NIDC Development Bank has once again gathered speed.
The separate merger committees formed by both the banks have agreed to form a joint merger committee led by joint secretary of the Finance Ministry Nirmal Hari Adhikari.
"We have formed a joint merger committee, which will be responsible for finalising all the merger related issues,” said RBB chief executive officer Kiran Shrestha. "The committee has set a target to finalise the merger process by October 17 this year," he said, adding that the long Dashain vacation in between will surely affect the merger process. "We will do our best to meet the deadline."
Earlier, the individual merger committees formed by the two banks has finalised a first draft of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday. They have now given the authority to finalise the MoU to the joint merger committee.
The banks have yet not yet discussed into technical issues of the merger like capital ratio and management of employees. "Technical issues are yet to be solved," Shrestha added.
NIDC has already finalised the Due Diligence Audit (DDA) to begin the merger process with RBB. RBB has also already calculated its net worth before starting the merger process.
Expecting merger soon, the Finance Ministry has asked NIDC Development Bank not to extend the agreement of the staffs, who have been hired on contract basis. The ministry has – issuing  a letter on May 7 – also asked NIDC not to appoint any new staff on contract.
A cabinet meeting on January 27 had also urged both the institutions to expedite the merger process. A committee that had been formed under the leadership of former secretary Prithvi Raj Ligal had also suggested NIDC to merge with RBB or to establish itself as an investment bank in collaboration with Hydropower Investment and Development Company.
The RBB has, however, planned to widen its branch network after the merger process is completed. The bank, which already has a presence in 68 districts with a network of 166 branches, has planned to add 43 new branches.
The RBB has paid-up capital of Rs 8.5 billion and NIDC has Rs 650 million.

Shree Airlines operates proven flight to Biratnagar

Domestic carrier Shree Airlines has – after a long wait – operated its first proving flight from Kathmandu to Biratnagar today. Shree Airlines operated its 50-seater CRJ 200 with callsign 9N-AMA for its proving flight.
The airline – the largest helicopter operator in the country – is preparing to begin fixed-wing operations. It has already acquired three aircraft – two 50-seater Bombardier CRJ 200s and one 70-seater CRJ-700 – to start commercial passenger service. However, according to civil aviation rules, it has to conduct a proving flight to get Air Operator's Certificate (AOC).
According to Shree Airlines corporate manager Anil Manandhar the proving flight was operated to fulfill the requirements of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). "Now, the inspection team of CAAN, which was on board the proving flight, will submit its report to the aviation sector regulator within two or three days," he said, adding that the CAAN will take a decision on AOC based on the report.
The airlines is expecting CAAN to issue AOC by next week. “Once we get AOC, we will start scheduled flights immediately after we get AOC,” Manandhar added.
Shree Airlines is planning to operate scheduled flights to five destinations; Bhadrapur, Biratnagar, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Dhangadhi. It also plans to operate mountain flights offering affordable fares and promising a safe and pleasing experience to the passengers.
Shree Airlines is the largest helicopter operator in the country, operating a fleet of Mi-17 and AS 350 B3e helicopters.

Sebon issues code of conduct for Board of Director

The capital market regulator has directed its Board of Directors (BoDs) not to invest in the promoter shares of any company that has received any kind of permission from the board. Issuing a code of conduct for its Board of Directors, Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) has also asked them to refrain from making any investment in the secondary market. It has said that they should not invest in the secondary market and promoter shares during his or her tenure at the board ‘to maintain secrecy and integrity’.
According to the direction, the board members can also no longer join the board of any brokerage company or any company either listed or is in the process of being listed in the secondary market. The board members have also been barred from working as full-time staff at any such organisations.
Sebon has a seven-member board, including the chairman. Three members from government agencies – joint secretaries from Finance Ministry and Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, and executive director of central bank – whereas remaining three are the representatives from Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) and an independent member.
"Sebon board members should maintain financial transparency," the capital market regulator said in its press note. "They should not abuse the authority granted to them,” the note reads, adding that the regulator is also planning to issue corporate governance directive to the organisations that are under the supervision of the authority.
Board members will now have to get a clearance from the board before they can speak to the media as any information given by them can directly affect individual companies or the market. They are also not allowed to accept any gifts without permission, the release adds.
Sebon has already issued code of conduct to its staff members.

NRNA-Thailand to provide civil scholarships

Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) Thailand and Civil Initiative entered an agreement to set up a Civil Scholarship Fund to support the needy students from the disadvantaged communities.
The agreement was announced with the main objective to enhance positive effect on the school enrolment, attendance, learning outcomes, reducing the drop out and repetition rates and promoting the school cycle completion rate on June 14 last month, in Kathmandu, a press release issued by the NRNA Thailand reads.
The scholarship will be awarded to the students between Grade VIII and Grade XII with the principle of inclusion. The students will be supported from the bank interest of the Endowment Funds.
NRNA Thailand has already contributed a sum of Rs 3.6 million. The amount has been deposited in the fixed deposit account at Mega Bank Nepal.
A ‘Civil Scholarship Fund Guidelines, 2017’ have been developed containing the scholarship eligibility criteria. The scholarship will be allocated to the earthquake affected districts for the first five years. For the first year, the project will be implemented in Dolakha and Gorkha districts, for 40 students, with 20 students in each district as pilot project and the following years minimum 100 students will be awarded the scholarship each year.
The Scholarship Determination and Implementation Committee (SDIC) led by coordinator Hemanta Raj Dahal (educationist) with Khagendra Raj Dhakal (scholarship promoter), Motikala Subba Dewan (advocate and educationist), Pralhad Karki (educationist), Ramesh Khadka (media representative) as members has also been formed. Two other members include a representative of Education Ministry and a president or representative of NRNA Thailand (Ex-officio Member), who are yet to be confirmed, the statement reads.
With a view to promote the scholarship fund, Mega Bank Nepal and Civil Initiative signed a memorandum of understanding that Mega Bank Nepal shall donate a sum of Rs 300,000 per year, initially for five years.
The recently held first meeting of the Civil Scholarship Board with the presence of representatives from NRNA Thailand and Civil Initiative has decided to implement the minimum of 40 scholarships in Gorkha and Dolakha districts for this year. The board has been working to award the scholarships for the first batch by the first week of October.