Kathmandu, May 7:

Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, today handed over a hydraulic excavator to the Irrigation Management Committee of Pithuwa VDC in Chitwan district. The excavator has been procured with grant assistance of Rs 7.4 million from India, states a release issued here today by the Indian Embassy.

“The new excavator provided by the Government of India to the Pithuwa Irrigation Management Committee will enable faster dredging and damming of feeder canals for irrigating the farmlands and save the crops from destruction in case of floods,” the statement said.

According to the release, more than 15,000 people living in Pithuwa VDC and their more than 1,800 hectares of agricultural land will be directly benefited by the new excavator.

Mukherjee noted that as a country dominated by agriculture, rural development was a basic requirement for Nepal’s modernisation.