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VOL. 27, NO. 22, February 08, 2007 (Magh 25 2064 B.S.)
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Domestic Funding For Tamakosi
Taking a measure step towards finalizing the domestic investment for Upper Tamakosi hydropower project, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) have signed an agreement.
As per the agreement, the EPF will provide Rs. 12 billion to the NEA for the construction of the 309 MW strong hydropower project, Kantipur reports.
NEA executive director Dr Arjun Kumar Karki and EPF administrator Sashi Bikram Rana signed the agreement. The project to be constructed at Lamabagar VDC in Dolkha district is estimated to cost Rs 27.44 billion exclusive of the interests on the loans. EPF is extending Rs 10 billion in loan and investing the remaining Rs 2 billion in equity through purchase of debentures convertible later into shares.
NEA has also informed that talks with the Citizens Investment Trust, Rastriya Beema Sansthan and other commercial banks for the remaining loans have been positive. NEA aims to complete the project by 2012/13.
Upper Tamakoshi is said to be a highly attractive and low risk project with generation cost of electricity standing at Rs 1.85 per unit. The peaking run-of-the-river project is dubbed the best among proposed projects due to its very low per unit cost, and minimal environmental and social costs.
Also, the project's location in central Nepal will help ease the power generation imbalance in a country where almost all projects are located in the western parts. The project will produce 1.74 billion units of electricity annually. Detailed engineering design of the project has not been completed yet. NEA will hold 51 percent of the shares of the project. The EPF will own 20 percent of the shares, and general public and other stakeholders will get the rest of the shares.
REPORTS OF 100 NEPALIS MISSING IN US
Up to 100 people who came from Nepal to work at a north Alabama factory seemingly vanished from a pair of apartment buildings, along with a lot of furniture and appliances, and can't be located, officials said.
According to Associated Press (AP) report, immigration agents are trying to determine what happened to the Nepali workers, among hundreds brought to the United States to work at a DVD factory operated by Cinram Inc, said Lauren Bethune, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Homeland Security. "We do not in any way consider it a security threat, but we do think it is important," she said.
A Huntsville television station, WAAY-TV, first reported on the missing workers. Cinram's human resources director, Peter Hassler, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. But a spokesman for a company that recruited the workers for Cinram said a contact in Nepal believes many of them have returned home.
"Most of the people he was talking to said they came to America, did what they wanted to do and went back home," said Doug Wilson, president of Ambassador Personnel in Thomasville, Georgia. "These are people with pretty strong family ties." Mary and Tim Snopl told the TV station they rented apartments in two buildings last fall to about 240 workers from Nepal.
But Mary Snopl said scores of the workers are now missing, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of furniture, televisions and kitchenware. "I don't know if they're living in Huntsville or somewhere else, I just know they aren't living with us and they aren't working at Cinram," she said.
Wilson said his company was seeking a list of items believed to be missing. Reports last fall said Cinram had hired about 1,350 foreign workers to package DVDs at its plant in Huntsville. Cinram — which describes itself as the world's largest maker of pre-recorded multimedia products — said it turned to foreign workers because the area job market couldn't fill its needs.
