KATHMANDU: Japan has decided to extend a grant assistance of up to Rs 1,705,492,000 (equivalent to $24,243,000) to Nepal for the construction of Sindhuli Road Phase III of Section II, in Japan’s fiscal year 2005. Tsutomu Hiraoka, Japanese ambassador to Nepal and Bhanu Prasad Acharya, secretary the ministry of finance, signed and exchanged a note of agreement to this effect today on behalf of their respective governments. The grant extended today to Nepal is intended to procure the products and services necessary for the execution of Phase III of Sindhuli Bazaar-Khurkot section of Sindhuli road, which stretches for about 13.7 km, states a press release issued here by the Japanese embassy. Japan has been extending grant assistance to Nepal for the construction of Sindhuli road since 1996. The construction of Sindhuli road, stretching from Bardibas of Mahottari to Dhulikhel in Kavre, is about 158 km long and is divided into four sections. Of these four sections, Section II stretches from Sindhuli bazaar to Khurkot for about 39 km. Japan had already extended 12.797 billion Japanese Yen in total for the construction of the Sindhuli road-Section I (Bardibas-Sindhuli Bazaar), Phase I & II in Section II (Sindhuli Bazaar-Khurkot) and phase I & II in Section IV(Dhulikhel-Nepalthok).

Nepali shuttlers crash out

KATHMANDU: Sumina Shrestha became the lone player remaining from the home side in the Nepal Asian Satellite Badminton Championship, which has been organised by Nepal Badminton Association under the sponsorship of Samsung, here today. Sumina entered the women’s semi-finals with a hard-fought three-set win over Dulai Hulder of Bangladesh. Sumina started well, and managed a 8-3 lead in the first set, but the over confident shuttler blew away the advantage and eventually lost the set 8-11. She came back strongly in the second set and levelled the scores at one-all by capturing the set 11-3. Sumina gave no chance to her Bangladeshi opponent in the third set and won the set 11-4 and advanced to the last four. “My opponent was not tough, but I lost the first set because of my over confidence despite taking a comfortable lead,” said Sumina, who will face Sri Lanka’s Thilini Jayasinghe in the semi-final. “My opponent in the semi-final is very tough, so I will have to work hard for that match,” she added. Other two local players lost in the same category. Puja Shrestha was totally outplayed by Renu Chandrika De Silva of Sri Lanka 1-11, 4-11, while Saradevi Tamang put some resistance but was not enough as she went down 6-11, 5-11 to Sri Lankan Thilini Jayasinghe.