30 INJURED IN COLLISION BETWEEN TWO VEHICLES

30 INJURED IN COLLISION BETWEEN TWO VEHICLES IN SARLAHI
Kathmandu, 28 Aug.: Thirty persons were injured in an overnight collision between two vehicles near Hariwon in Sarlahi, Radio Nepal said Sunday morning.
One bus was proceeding to the capital and another vehicle was heading for central terai from Kathmandu collided
Ten seriously injured are undergoing treatment at a hospital in Chitwan.
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UML PRESSURE FOR PEACE AND CONSTITUTION

Kathmandu, 28 Aug.: Organizations affiliated with UML heading the outgoing government are bringing out thousands of people on the streets of the capital Sunday for peace anda constitution.
The 31 August deadline for completing the process of constitution drafting concluding won’t be met.
UML mass mobilization comes at a time when certain areas of the capital have been declared prohibited areas where demonstrations and assembly of people have been banned.
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KP SHARMA OLI VISITING CHINA
Kathmandu, 28 Aug.: Senior UML leader KP Sharma Oli is going to China to attend a meeting of Asian political parties 2 to 7 September at Nanking.
Vice-president Parmananda Jha is likely to attend the conference as well, UML mouthpiece Chalphal reports.
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CONTRACTOR EVALUATION OF UPPER TAMAKOSHI RESUMES
Kathmandu, 28 Aug.: Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Limited (UTHL) has decided to resume the process of evaluation of contractors for Mechanical and Electrical Equipment (Lot 3) of the 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi Hydro Electricity Project, The Kathmandu Post reports.
The UTHL board meeting on Friday took the decision after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO) gave the go ahead. The Lot 3 includes design, manufacture, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of turbine, generators, transformers, and switchgear.
Touted as the project of national importance, Upper Tamakoshi’s Lot 3 bidding was embroiled in controversy after Austria’s ANDRITZ Hydro GmbH, which had bid the lowest among the six pre-qualified contractors, included its Indian subsidiary as its partner.
Sources at the Ministry of Energy (MoE) said UTHL decided to move ahead with contract awarding process after CIAA on Wednesday directed it to carry out the process as per the law. “The evaluation process has been resumed after the nod of PPMO and CIAA,” said a ministry source.
Although the evaluation process of the pre-qualified bidders for the LoT 3 contract was supposed to start much earlier, it was halted soon after UTHCL announced the name of six the pre-qualified companies on the third week of May. Competing pre-qualified companies had filed a complaint at CIAA against ANDRITZ Hydro GmbH over the inclusion of its Indian subsidiary Andritz Hydro Pvt Ltd. According to them, the
Austrian company breached its earlier commitment to qualify as a single company.
The competing companies say Andritz did not inform about its joint venture with Andritz Hydro Pvt Ltd India at the time of submission of application. But UTHCL said ANDRITZ had mentioned that it would involve its Indian subsidiary after it gets a nod for the contract.
The Austrian company has quoted Rs 6.46 billion for the import of mechanical and electrical equipment, while the second lowest bidder—ALSTOM India—has quoted Rs 6.74 billion.
With resumption of the evaluation process, UTHL will examine technical and financial proposal of the pre-qualified companies. “It is not that the contract has been awarded,” said the source. “Only the evaluation process of the pre-qualified companies has begun.”
The UTHL board has also decided to award the contract of Lot 2. According to MoE sources, there was only one company—Texmaco India—for the Lot 2, so it won the contract.
Sources say work on UTHL is three months behind the schedule. And, its civil contractor has already applied for the time extension. However, the consultant hasn’t agreed the civil contractor’s proposal. The construction of Upper Tamakoshi project, the country’s largest hydel project till date, had formally started on May 18 with Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal laying the foundation stone.
The estimated cost of the project located in Dolakha is Rs 35.29 billion and it is expected to be completed by 2015. The project is the first to be commissioned through the mobilisation of national capital. The government, public enterprises and financial institutions, including Nepal Telecom (NT), Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Rastriya Beema Sansthan (RBB), and Citizen Investment Trust (CIT), have invested in the project. EPF has given a loan of Rs 10 billion and NT Rs 6 billion, while EPF and CIT are lending Rs 2 billion each.
Meanwhile, the company has also made public the names of shortlisted companies for the management team of UTHL and has asked the companies to submit technical and financial proposal in this regard by September 27, 2011. The two shortlisted companies are SNC Lavlin Inc, Canada, and SMEC International Pty, Australia.
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NRB UPS CURRENCY NOTE CIRCULATION 40 PERCENT FOR FESTIVE SEASON

Kathmandu, 28 Aug.: Bearing in mind the surge in demand for fresh currency notes during the Dashain festival, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to increase note circulation by 40 percent this year compared to last year, The Kathmandu Post reports.
The central bank has already started distributing necessary notes to its branches. Central bank officials said they will complete distributing notes to all seven NRB branches and its note funds in Nepal Bank Limited (NBL) and Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) within mid-September.
The central bank also made it clear that it has enough notes to meet the demand, assuring that there will not be note scarcity during the festival as seen two years ago. Shortage of notes during Dashain two years ago is considered as one of the key factors behind dwindling public confidence in banks and financial institutions (BFIs).
According to NRB, it is sending clean notes worth around Rs 28 billion for this year’s Dashain. Last Dashain saw use of notes worth Rs 20 billion. “On the basis of price rise of goods and salary hike of government employees, we have decided to increase the volume of notes by 40 percent,” said a senior NRB official. “We expect a demand of Rs 28 billion during this year’s Dashain.”
The central bank will also make available clean notes to other BFIs as per the demand. “We will issue a notice about distribution of notes for Dashain,” said NRB Spokesperson Bhaskarmani Gyawali. NRB has made it clear that all notes will not be new, but they will be clean. “We have notes in our note vault as old as one and a half years,” said the NRB official.
When the note crisis hit BFIs two years ago a head of Dashain, NRB had sought apology for the ‘delay in supply’ by the printing company. “We learnt a lesson from the negative impact of the non-availability of notes,” said the NRB official. Such was the crisis in 2009 Dashain that the central bank was forced to set a limit on the amount of fresh notes to be provided to BFIs.
A high level probe committee formed to investigate the note shortage had blamed managerial weakness of the central bank for the note crunch. The investigation had stated that there had been a number of incidents of carelessness and negligence in handling the supply of notes both at the operational as well as policy level. The report had also found that the central bank lacked a scientific system to project the demand of notes, which meant that the entire note supply mechanism was running on ad hoc basis.
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