Kathmandu, December 12

The government has decided to accept subsidised loan and technical grant assistance equivalent to 7.12 billion rupees from the Asian Development Bank for the Bagmati River Basin Improvement Project.

The project aims to raise the river’s assimilative capacity, establish water treatment plants and park on the banks of the river. Speaking at a press meet organised in Singha Durbar today to disclose the decisions of the December 9 Cabinet meeting, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota, who is also the government spokesperson said that the Council of Ministers also decided to accept around Rs 21.45 billion in subsidised loan from the ADB to upgrade Mugling-Pokhara stretch along the Prithvi Highway as part of the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Road Connectivity Project. The Cabinet has decided to form a talks team to hold dialogue with European Investment Bank to receive loan assistance of around Rs 12.52 billion for Electricity Grid Upgradation and Extension Project.

The government will also accept a loan assistance of approximately Rs 5.65 billion for Rural Enterprise Financing Project and a loan of additional Rs 5.65 billion for Food Safety and Agriculture Commercialisation Programme from the ADB.

In yet another decision, the government will accept grant assistance of around one billion rupees from the Swiss Government for the Provincial Support Programme, Province 1. The Cabinet has granted permission for a five-member Nepali delegation led by Baikuntha Aryal, Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies to make an exposure visit to India to study Electronic Cargo Tracking System in Kolkata and New Delhi.

The government has also sanctioned temporary positions of eight gazetted officers in Pesticide Residue Analysis Unit under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development for the current fiscal.

Cabinet has decided to invalidate Nepali citizenship certificate of Zamaluddhin Dhuniya acquired from Rupandehi district by submitting fake documents. The government appointed Anil Pokharel of Morang as the executive chief of National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The government will also lease out 31 khata and eight dhur land to the District Coordination Committee, Rupandehi for 30 years. The government has also decided to extend the term of the investigation commission formed to probe government, public and trust land by six months. Nepali Army has been authorised to receive two units of M28 Skytruck Airbus to be provided by the United States of America.