Selection of firm for railway DPR soon

The government is preparing to select an international firm for carrying out detailed project report (DPR) of Bardibas-Simara stretch of the proposed Mechi-Mahakali Electric Railway and its Simara-Birgunj link. A total of 16 firms have submitted the expression of interest (EoI) to execute this job.

Ram Kumar Lamsal, chief of the Railway Construction Project—the proposed Railway Department—said they will shortlist three to six firms for request for proposal within next two weeks. “We will select the firms based on the Public Procurement Act,” he added.

NTA to invite tenders for optical fibre network by this FY-end

The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has stated that it would invite tenders for expansion of the optical fibre network in all the country’s districts within the current fiscal year. The regulatory body is preparing to seek suggestions from the Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO) for calling requests for proposals for the project.

The District Optical Fibre Network Programme was launched two years ago, however, it has not able to move ahead as anticipated. The government has planned to extend optical fibre connections to all 75 districts by 2014 to provide access to high speed broadband data service.

Govt. to exchange Libyan dinar

The Ministry of Finance has agreed to exchange the Libyan Dinar brought in by Nepali migrant workers. The ministry is preparing to seek approval from the Cabinet in this regard soon to offer some relief to Nepalis forced to return from war-torn Libya.

Of the 1,869 workers returning from Libya, more than 1,350 individuals have brought a total of 265,000 Libyan Dinar, but the home country does not exchange the currency. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) that has been holding amount for safety said it cannot exchange the Libyan Dinar as it is not included in its foreign currency exchange list.

More time sought for land acquisition for fast track

The Ministry of Physical Planning and Works has asked the government to extend the tenure of the high-level committee formed to acquire land for the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track Project. The term of the committee expired on April 29.

“We have asked the Ministry of Finance to extend the committee’s term by three months,” said Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, joint secretary of the Physical Planning Ministry. He added they had sought additional time as the task of acquiring land, particularly from people who had long been staying on government-owned land, was yet to be completed.

Following a cabinet decision, the government had formed the committee to make land acquisition easier for the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track Project with a three-month term. However,

Ncell clinches No 1 spot from Nepal Telecom

It’s now official. Ncell—the country’s first private GSM mobile operator—is the No 1 player in the GSM mobile segment.

Telecom regulator Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA)’s latest MIS Report says that Ncell has toppled Nepal Telecom (NT) to become the GSM segment leader.

Interestingly, Ncell achieved this feat exactly a year after its massive rebranding exercise. The NTA’s latest statistics (as of mid-March) shows that Ncell subscriber base has touched 4.78 million mark, whereas NT has 4.71 million subscribers. Ncell has already declared that the number of its subscribers increased to over 5 million as of April 10.