Rs 50 mn Indian aid for hospital, school in Nepal

Kathmandu, Aug 4: India is to provide Rs 50 million for the construction of a hospital and a school in Nepal.

Two separate Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) were signed by the Embassy of India, Kathmandu, yesterday, with the concerned Municipality/DDC for providing grant assistance of Rs 29.92 million for construction of a double-storeyed building for Prithvi Chandra Hospital in Parasi of District Nawalparasi and Rs 19.13 million for construction of a double-storeyed school building for Shree Sharda Secondary School in Deurali VDC of District Bhojpur in eastern Nepal, the Indian Embassy said in a press release.

The existing building of Prithvi Chandra Hospital at Parasi in Nawalparasi, with 5-bed capacity, was constructed in 1968 with the assistance of Government of India and has provided valuable healthcare services to the local community.

However, with growing demands on its services, the existing infrastructure of the hospital is posing a serious constraint on its capacity to deliver quality healthcare.

The new double-storeyed building with 25-bed capacity,being constructed with Indian assistance will help address this constraint and augment other related facilities of the hospital such as X-ray, pathology, dentistry, surgery, the Embassy stated.

The new infrastructure will provide improved healthcare services to about one million people of Nawalparasi and Rupandehi districts.

Established in 1957, Shree Sharada Secondary School located in Deurali VDC of District Bhojpur has been developed with community resources and is among the oldest schools of the district.It presently has over 600 students.

The new double-storeyed building, being constructed with the assistance of Government of India, would provide additional classrooms for the growing number of students in the school and enable its upgradation to the higher secondary level, said the release.

Under the MoUs, separate oversight committees, consisting of representatives from the relevant beneficiary organisations and local development and administrative authorities, will be constituted to ensure community participation in overseeing the projects for their effective and timely implementation, the Indian Embassy said.

According to the Embassy, these projects are among five development projects in district Nawalparasi and two in district Bhojpur, recently undertaken with Indian assistance, and overall, are part of more than 230 large and small projects currently being implemented under the India-Nepal Economic Cooperation Programme in the sectors of education, health, community development and infrastructure, covering all the districts of Nepal with an outlay of over Rs 21 billion.

UNI