NTC expands pay phone service

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KATHMANDU, Jan 4 :Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), the state-owned sole operator of telecom services, as a part of introducing and upgrading its services to enhance its competitiveness, has expanded the pay phone service to various places in the capital.

A pay phone is a system in which users are required to purchase pre-defined smart card worth certain amount of money. A caller can make a phone call by inserting the card in a special phone set as long as the amount of money specified in the card is not exhausted.

Currently the Corporation has made available cards worth two hundred rupees in the market which can be bought at the NTC’s various exchanges and many other places where the service is installed.

The NTC had begun this service in the capital city in September 2001, with quite a few installations at some of its exchanges in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. The new service had begun with a view to facilitating common people who either do not own telephone or are away from home, Hiranya Prasad Bhattarai, spokesman at the NTC.

"We have introduced the pay phone service with an objective of making phone service available to those who do not own telephone or are in urgent need. Once paid a certain amount, one need not carry any money along with him. Simply carrying a card is enough," said Bhattarai.

In keeping with the growing interest of the users, the Corporation has recently installed the services at all exchanges in the Valley and many other public places, says Bhattarai.

Except for the NTC’s offices at Sundhara, Bhadrakali, Chabahil, Naxal, Patan, Chhauni, Gongabu, Thimi, Bhaktapur, Tripureshwor and Kopundol, the service is also available at other places.

Bishal Bazaar, maternity hospital, Thapathali, Army officers’ Club, Chhetrapati Free Clinic, Royal Nepal Army Headquarters, Army Hospital Mahankal, Tilganga Eye Hospital, Kathmandu Medical College, Tribhuvan International Airport, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital and Kanti Children’s Hospital are some other places where the system is available.

Similarly, the service is available in 50 places including those aforesaid places and the Corporation plans to introduce the service to other potential areas in the future, according to Spokesman Bhattarai.

The smart cards can be bought from those places where the service is available. The Corporation is planning to make available five-hundred-rupee smart cards, as customers have been asking for it, it is said.

Ginger farming getting attractive

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PALPA, Jan 4 :Local people of Palpa district have proved that cultivation of ginger, which they used to grow only for local consumption just few years’ back, can turn into a reliable source of income if its cultivation is done with serious efforts for commercial purpose.

Ever since, the local peasants of the district started commercial cultivation of ginger and established a local ginger depot with the financial assistance of Local Initiation Program and in the coordination of Rural Economic Development Association and District Ginger Promotion Program, the income form ginger sales have soared remarkably.

According to local farmers, they had to walk miles to sell ginger at a nominal price of less than Rs12 per kilogram. And after the coordinated approach to establish a depot in the local area to sell the locally produced ginger, the price per kilogram has gone up to Rs 19, which has also boosted locals for the commercial production.

"The surge in the price of ginger in the local market has attracted large number of farmers and has also created an attractive employment opportunities for more than 2 thousand local people," says Lila Karki, Coordinator of the Ginger Promotion Program (GPP).

According to the statistics available, the value of ginger produced in the district crossed Rs 40 million last year.

Delighted by the success, the locals engaged in the ginger cultivation and production expect that its overall production in the district would double in coming year to touch over 12 thousand tons. "The profit in the ginger farming is 4 times more than that of in maize farming," Durga Bahadur Kunwor, market manager of GPP says.

However, he points out the need of modern processing plant to ensure a sustainable income of the local ginger producers. "In the lack of such facilities, we still have to depend on the Indian traders to sell out the production," he added.