Designing of CMISP begins

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KATHMANDU, Feb 13 : With hardly a month remaining for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded Second Irrigation Sector Project (SISP) to expire, a team of experts has initiated the designing of a new irrigation project.

A follow on to the SISP, which was initiated in 1997 with aims to irrigate 41,000 hectares of land in 35 districts of the Eastern and Central Development regions, the new project comes into force next year.

The project designing exercise will last for the next six months. Project designing process is a prerequisite for new project to come into full implementation.

The design team presently working will review the success and shortcomings of the SISP and draw the overall modality for implementing the Community Managed Irrigation Sector Project (CMISP) based on the review.

The CMISP is a Priority-one project under the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), a three-year rolling budgetary system, and the Tenth Plan, which is in the process of being finalised.

The project design will determine the beneficiary groups, the command area and the location where the CMISP is to be reached, and draw the necessary strategies required for capacity building of water users groups.

In particular, the thrust of the design will be on the rehabilitation of traditional Farmers Managed Irrigation Systems (FMIS), in addition to the construction of new small and medium sized irrigation facilities.

The CMISP, just like the SISP, seeks to meet the irrigation targets set by the 20-year Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP). The APP has aimed to irrigate over 600,000 hectares of arable land within the plan period.

Like the SISP, the new project will be implemented in the 35 districts in the Eastern and Central Development Regions. Department of Irrigation will be the implementing agency for the project that is likely to last five to six years.

The overall designing of the project is being undertaken with Project Preparatory Technical Assistance from the ADB. Nepal Consolidated Management System (CMS) and Montgomary Watson Harza Ltd., a New Zealand-based consulting firm, began work on Tuesday.

Ajay Lal Shrestha, team leader of CMS, confirmed that the designing process has already been initiated, which will take six to seven months. He said that the project design will be based on a detailed study, which on completion will be submitted to the government and the ADB.

Officials at the ADB–Nepal Resident Mission said that the scope and area of coverage of the CMISP will be finalised only after the designing process is completed.

"A detailed modality for project implementation will be finalised only after the full project design is prepared," said Govinda Gyawali, Project Implementation Officer at the ADB–Nepal Resident Mission.

Despite the initiation of the project designing process, loan agreement between the government and the ADB for the implementation of the CMISP is, however, yet to be reached.

ADB officials said that the bank is likely to pump in US$ 25 million while the government pours US$ 6.3 million for the project. However, they added that the amounts are only estimates and are subject to change. Much will depend on the project design.

The ADB officials further stressed that the actual implementation of the CMISP rests on the security condition in the country. "Peace is a crucial aspect when it comes to implementation of any project," said Dr Richard Vokes, Country Director, the ADB–Nepal Resident Mission.

Quarantine check post in Sunauli encourages farmers

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PALPA, Feb 13 : Establishment of the much-awaited quarantine check post in Sunauli, one of the major entry points along the Nepal-India border, has encouraged the local farmers particularly the ginger producers.

During a training on Ginger Processing and Market Management organised here by the District Agriculture Development Office Palpa, the participating farmers from 23 village development committees (VDCs) expressed hope that the problem of finding market for ginger and other agricultural produce would be solved to a greater extent.

Ginger is a major cash crop in Palpa. The district is officially the number one producer of ginger. According to Rural Economic Development Association (REDA), a local NGO working in the field of agriculture, ginger farming is the major occupation of the farmers of 37 VDCs out of 65 in the district.

There are over 120 ginger-farmer associations in the district with the involvement of over 3,500 farmers. According to Programme Coordinator of REDA Lila Bahadur Karki, over 20,000 farmers have been benefiting from ginger farming.

However, the ginger farmers had to heavily rely on the Indian markets to sell their product. Lack of quarantine check post in Sunauli, a huge amount of ginger rotted in the storehouses of farmers as it needed quarantine check certificate to export any agriculture produce to India.

In the lack of quarantine check post in Sunauli, the most easily accessible entry point from the district, the farmers had to export the product to India through Nepalgunj, which not only consumed a lot of time and money making the product less competitive, but was also very inconvenient. Many farmers even reported of being robbed on the way by the Maoist rebels.

Absence of a quarantine check post in Sunauli even forced the farmers to think of switching to different crops.

Participants in the programme also expressed their optimism in the expansion of the production of ginger in coming years. "We expect that the ginger-production would go up by at least 25 per cent next year," said Ram Prasad Pokharel, a ginger trader of Dumre Madanpokhara.

ATLN to protest entry of Indian public vehicles

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BIRATNAGAR, Feb 13 : Although the third round joint-secretary level meeting between Nepal and India on Trans-border movement of motor vehicles has concluded on positive note, representatives of transport labour have decided to protest against the proposed entrance of Indian public vehicles into Nepal.

Association of Transport Labourers of Nepal (ATLN) at a programme here today announced to disapprove any agreement on the trans-border movement of motor vehicles between Nepal and India.

Ajay Kumar Rai, president of ATLN warned that the government might have to face a strong rally of over 30,000 transport labourers if the two countries make any decision on the much-discussed cross border transport agreement.

"Even if Indian side has agreed on Nepal’s proposal, we are not going to allow movement of any Indian public vehicle within our country," Rai said, adding, "Public vehicles of both the countries should not be allowed to cross each other’s border." He also lambasted the government for sidelining the labour representatives from meeting.

Both Nepal and India are currently engaged in sorting out the differences in the movement of cross border movement of public vehicles. While Indian vehicles, under the present provision can easily enter into any part of Nepal for 72 hours by depositing just Rs 300, Nepali transport entrepreneurs, on the other hand, have to deposit Rs 50,000 along with insurance papers.

Construction materials price index up by 4 pc

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KATHMANDU, Feb 13 : Buoyed by the recent encouraging boost of the real estate activities, particularly in the Kathmandu valley, the price index of major construction materials during the first half of the current fiscal year recorded an increment of over 4 per cent.

The half-yearly Construction Price Index (CPI) complied and disseminated by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), reveals that the CPI registered an increment of 4.02 per cent against 5.81 per cent witnessed during the same period last year.

Among the major construction materials, the price of cement, which holds the largest weight of 29.76 per cent in the CPI, went up by almost 4 per cent whereas such rise during the same period last year was 5.5 per cent. Budgetary import tax increment on cement plus depreciation of the domestic currency against the dollar, which has fueled the cost of production, are some of the major causes for the price increment.

Since domestic production is not enough to match the soaring national demand, Nepal has to rely upon the imported cement particularly from India and any import duty increment directly pushes up the price of cement first and then the whole index.

During the review period, the growth in the price index for iron rods, billets and others – the second largest weight holder of the CPI – squeezed to remain 3.45 per cent against a surge of 8.95 per cent during the same period last year. Price increment of billets - major raw materials for the rod industries that are particularly imported from India paying convertible currencies – owing to rupees depreciation was the main cause of the price rise.

Likewise, the price of bricks that commands a weight of 11.30 of the overall index, went up by 4.14 per cent whereas such increment during the corresponding period last year was over 7.73 per cent. Massive increment in the production of bricks mainly anchored by the improving construction activities particularly in the urban areas helped in pushing up the price slightly.

However, days ahead for the brick industries are tough due to increasing pressure from the environmental activists, who blame the brick kilns for increasing air pollution.

Similarly, during the period, the price of labour also registered a rise of 5.38 per cent whereas such increment witnessed same period last year was 3.27 per cent. The high growth of labour price is mainly attributed to improved construction industry that was facing a severe recession since last five years.

The price of woods sawn, which is smallest weight holder among the five major construction materials, also went up by 3.08 per cent as against less than one per cent witnessed increment recorded during same period last year.