The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to provide 152 million US dollars for the implementation of Power Transmission and Distribution Efficiency Enhancement Project. Of the total amount, 150 million USD is concessional OCR loan and two million USD is from Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction.

An agreement to this effect was signed and exchanged at the Ministry of Finance on Sunday.

The Power Transmission and Distribution Efficiency Enhancement Project supports to expand the transmission lines in various areas of Nepal and enhance the distribution efficiency in the northern part of Kathmandu, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The project would incorporate various components such as construction of transmission lines, upgrading sub-stations in Barhabise, Laphsiphedi, Khimti and Chapagaun areas and the rehabilitation and capacity enhancement of distribution system in Kathmandu Valley. The project has completion period of 4.5 years.

Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Shanta Raj Subedi, and Sharad Bhandari, Officer-in-Charge, Nepal Resident Mission, Asian Development Bank, signed the Loan Agreement on behalf of the government of Nepal and the ADB respectively.

Similarly, Kulman Ghising, Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority and Sharad Bhandari, Officer-in-Charge, Nepal Resident Mission, ADB signed the project agreement.

Likewise, ADB has also agreed to provide 21 million US dollars policy based assistance to the Government of Nepal. The loan amount would be utilized in the implementation of SASEC Customs Reforms and Modernization for trade Facilitation programme. The assistance would be mobilized through on budget mechanism, states a press release issued by the Ministry.

The main objective of the programme is to increase legitimate trade's access for simplification, harmonization and modernization of trade process. Being a policy based loan, after the successful completion of the programme it is expected that national policy and legal framework for trade facilitation and customs procedures would be improved, organisation structure of Department of Customs (DOC) would be strengthened and including others, the capacity of DOC would be enhanced.

The programme would cover the whole customs administration and its offices throughout the country. The loan amount would be utilized within August 2021.

The agreement was signed by Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Baikuntha Aryal, and Sharad Bhandari, Officer-in-Charge, ADB, Nepal Resident Mission on the behalf of the government of Nepal and the Bank respectively.

On the occasion, the Government of Nepal expressed its appreciation to the ADB for this assistance and its continued support in the socio-economic development endeavours of Nepal. RSS