ovt to select firm to conduct metro rail DPR within week

The government plans to select a firm to conduct a detailed project report (DPR) for the proposed Kathmandu Metro Railway Project within a week.

The Investment Board (IB) has been assigned to implement the project.

The Kathmandu Metro is one of the 14 mega projects which the government handed over to the IB on May 27.

According to the final feasibility report, the 77-km metro rail is estimated to cost US$ 3.88 billion (Rs 330 billion), and its construction is expected to take 10 years.

The feasibility report was prepared a year ago by a group of companies consisting of Chungsuk Engineering Company, Korea Transport Institution, Kunhwa Consulting and Engineering Company, Korea Rail Network Authority and two local companies, Building Design Authority and Environmental and Research Management Consultant.

As per the report, the metro will have five lines—four lines inside the Ring Road and one line of 27.35 km running around it. “The appointment of a consultant to carry out the DPR has been delayed,” said Radhesh Pant, CEO of the IB. “A concrete decision will be made within a week.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management said that the IB was preparing to assign Nepal Metro to conduct the DPR. Ministry secretary Tulsi Prashad Sitaula said that the IB was mulling giving Nepal Metro the job provided it comes in partnership with Korean companies as no other firm had shown interest in doing it. About three months ago, Nepal Metro had submitted a proposal to the IB to carry out the detailed study and build the metro railway in partnership with Korean companies.

The ministry said that it had requested the South Korean government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to conduct a DPR for the metro about five months ago. “However, neither of them has responded and no other firms have come forward to conduct the DPR. The DPR is expected to cost around US$ 6 million,” he said. “As Nepal Metro has offered to do it free of cost, it will be our first choice.”

Previously, IB chief Pant had also said that if Nepal Metro signs partnership agreements with an adequate number of Korean firms and shows the technical and financial capabilities required for this type of project, the IB could award it the contract. However, an IB source said that the contract was likely to be awarded through open competition and the selected firm would have to pay Nepal Metro the cost of the DPR.

Deepak Timilsina, chief executive officer of Nepal Metro, said that his company, if given the chance, would prepare the DPR working in a consortium of eight to 10 companies from Korea, Australia and Singapore. “Moreover, we are also looking for other companies to keep us prepared to undertake the project if we do get the contract.”

However, he refused to reveal the names of the companies that would be working in a consortium with his firm.

Grande International Hospital in Kathmandu

Kathmandu will soon welcome a new hospital by the name of Grande International in Dhapasi. The 14-storey hospital will have eight operation theatres and many added features including a wellness center, internet lounge, coffee shop, restaurants and so on. 

Tribhuvan Int’l Airport to get new domestic terminal next year

KATHMANDU, JAN 18 – Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) will likely get a new domestic terminal with improved and advanced facilities next year. Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Posta Bahadur Bogati on Friday laid the foundation stone for the Rs 109-million domestic terminal to replace the old building.

The proposed disabled-friendly building will be erected 30 m to the west of the existing terminal, and construction is expected to take one year. Airport authorities said they had promised the contractor a bonus if the building is completed ahead of schedule.

According to Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the terminal building and the road and parking will occupy 4,959 sq m. The existing terminal, designed to handle 384 passengers per hour, was expanded and renovated in 1995. “Although the new airport building has been planned for a temporary period, it will provide double the facilities provided by the old terminal,” Suman said.

CAAN has been conducting the first phase of the TIA Master Plan 2026 with a loan and grant assistance of the Asian Development Bank. TIA has been planned to be expanded to 90,000 sq m from the present 36,000 sq m by 2028.

CAAN officials said that the new domestic terminal had been designed to function until 2028. As per the master plan, the present international terminal will be used to handle domestic flights.

CAAN has moved to improve the facilities after endless complaints from travellers about the poor state of the domestic terminal. Passengers and airlines too have been complaining that they have not been getting their money’s worth for the airport taxes they are paying.

CAAN is constructing the terminal with its own resources. It said that an area of 571 sq m area will be set aside for airline offices, restaurants and restrooms. There will be a separate domestic cargo handling area. “The existing building could no longer handle the huge volume of traffic,” said Suman.

As per TIA statistics, passenger movement at the domestic terminal jumped to 1.55 million in 2010 from 1 million in 2001. Passenger flow is projected to increase to 1.94 million by 2015. Aircraft movement has increased to 99,290 in 2010 from 63,159 in 2001. Domestic aircraft movement has been projected to rise to 115,800 by 2015.

CAAN director general Tri Ratna Manandhar said that focus on a second international airport had slowed down infrastructure development at TIA. “Though late, CAAN has realized that investment in airport infrastructure is vital for sustainability of the aviation industry in the country.”

Meanwhile, newly appointed tourism secretary Sushil Ghimire lauded CAAN’s initiative to make the new building disabled friendly and said that it should also consider extra facilities for the elderly.

Google Server in Nepal

Search engine giant Google Inc. in association with Nepal Telecom has installed its cache server in Nepal,reports Nagarik Daily. 

According to report, Google's cache server has been installed in Nepal Telecom office in Jawalakhel. “With the installation of Google cached server in Nepal now users can use Google services faster than before”, said NTC official. “After the installation of Google server, Internet bandwidth uses has been decreased”, added another official. 

Since cache server is a dedicated network server  that saves Web pages and other Internet content locally. Users request will be handled by Google cache server that was installed in Nepal Telecom Office. Now Nepali internet users can use Google Services such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Plus, Google Maps and several other Google products faster than before. A cache server both speeds up access to data and reduces demand on bandwidth.

According to report, the service is in testing phase and Google's engineer are here in Nepal to train NTC technicians and engineers. 

Thanks to Google and NTC. Hope now I can stream YouTube HD videos and can sign in to Gmail within a second.

Earthquake just hit Kathmandu!

Oooooo... Kathmandu(Nepal) was hit by Earthquake few minutes before.

sex of god

Movie Theaters To Stop Showing Hindi Films

Nepali cinema halls have decided to stop showing Hindi films from Monday. The decision comes a few days after CPN-Maoist decided to ban screening of Hindi movies across the country.

Multiplex operator QFX has decided to close all its theaters indefinitely from Monday. “We have decided to close all our theaters from Monday,” Basanta Manandhar, distribution manager of QFX, told Republica. “We are forced to close our theaters because we do not have any quality Nepali movie right now.”

QFX operates QFX Jainepal in Hattisar, QFX Kumari in Kamalpokhari and QFX Central at Civil Mall, Sundhara. Another multiplex, BigCinemas, however, another multiplex, Big Cinemas at City Center, will operate with only one theater from Monday.

“We will close two of our theaters for an indefinite period. In one theater, we will be showing Nepali movie Facebook,” said Bharat Singh, country manager of Big Cinemas. “We will have to face a huge loss if we are not allowed to show Hindi movies,” Singh said without disclosing the loss amount.

Gwarko-based Guna Cinemas has not decided whether it would show Nepali movies or close all its theaters. “We will decide by Monday morning,” Shambhu Sitaula, marketing manager of Guna Cinemas, said.

Gopi Krishna Movies, however, plans to open all its theaters. “We won´t close the theaters; we will show Nepali movies in our six theaters,” Pradeep Dahal, manager of Gopi Krishna Movies, said.

One theater of Gopi Krishna Movies is currently undergoing maintenance.
Cinema operators have said the ban on screening of Hindi movies will create a huge loss to them. They say all the theaters will eventually shut down if the decision is not withdrawn.

Source: Republica

Plane with 19 on board crashes in Nepalese capital

  A Dornier Plane belonging to Sita Air crashed early morning today killing possibly all 19 on board including 3 crew members. The plane was en-route to Lukla from Kathmandu Airport. The Crash took place at nineteen minutes past 6AM in the morning.

The aircraft is reported to have burst into flames after it crashed and landed in Sukumbasi tole in Bhaktapur near Manohara Khola. See the image below.

We will follow up with more news soon!

iphone 5 release

NEW YORK, Sept 24: Apple Inc. said Monday that it has sold more than 5 million units of the new iPhone 5 in the three days since its launch, less than analysts had expected.

Apple shares were down $15.31, or 2.2 percent, at $684.79 in premarket trading. 

The iPhone 5, the most eagerly awaited phone of the year, went on sale Friday in the U.S., Germany, France, Japan and five other countries.

When it launched the iPhone 4S a year ago, Apple sold 4 million in the first three days.

Apple could have sold more iPhones if it had more available: demand exceeded supply for most models. Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White said the phone was sold out at 80 to 85 percent of the U.S. Apple stores he and his team contacted Sunday evening, and the ones that were still available were mostly Sprint models.

 The four-inch screen, which we’ll come onto in detail shortly, is Apple’s belated nod to the industry trend for bigger displays, and means the iPhone 5 now stands a proud 123.8mm tall – width remains the same at 58.6mm.

The extra screen real-estate is welcome, though smaller-handed iPhone users might struggle to reach the standby button with a forefinger while holding it in a natural position. Th

ey might even have to stretch for the extra top row of apps. Just hold it a different way, perhaps.

Because various components have been reduced in size, the headphone socket has been moved to the bottom of the device, which comes with its pros and cons. On the plus side, your phone usually goes in your pocket nose first, which means the headphone cable has a clear run out to your ears.

On the downside, the jutting jack interferes with your hand when holding it ‘upright’. Not all apps will use the gyroscope to flip the screen 180-degrees, either, so you’ll have to get used to that.

The bottom-hugging stereo speakers have also been given a boost, the better to annoy old people on the bus as you rattle out Skream’s latest. Do your own iPhone 4S to iPhone 5 sound comparison and you’ll realise the sound is unquestionably fuller and deeper.

Then there’s the Lightening connector. In our testing, we didn’t find it any quicker for transferring content over a cable but we do prefer the new connector in terms of it being a) smaller and b) reversible.

At the time of writing, the Lightening-to-30-pin adapter wasn’t available – it sure ain’t in the box, and it’ll cost £25 on release – so we haven’t experienced how it will cope with existing docks and accessories but it’s safe to say, things could look ugly.

There are add-ons that simply won’t work with it, either – TomTom’s iPhone car kit, for example. It’s made us realise how many USB-to-30-pin cables we’ve amassed over the years and how, now, they’re all redundant, apart from servicing the new iPad and nostalgic clear outs.

Nepali Airline BB Airways To Fly

BB Airways BO 428 made its maiden flight carrying 201 tourists from Siem Reap of Combodia to Kathmandu on Thursday afternoon. The chartered flight of Boeing 757-200 touched down at Tribhuwan International Airport at 12.50 PM.

"This is an achievement not just for us but the whole nation. This flight has added a new chapter to the economic progress of the country and we have been encouraged to proceed further,” Bhaban Bhatta, chairman of the carrier. 

Press statement issued by the airlines says the flight was operated in co-ordination with TonleSap Airlines of Cambodia. 

“The scheduled flights would link Kathmandu with Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong while the airline will also operate two chartered flights to Narita, Japan from Kathmandu every week,” the statement further adds.