Kathmandu: The government has decided to accept a grant assistance of 2.8 billion Japanese Yen from the government of Japan for emergency restoration of the BP Highway damaged by the flood.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers held on July 28 agreed on this decision including other various decisions which were unveiled here today through a press conference by Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Prithvi Subba Gurung.

Similarly, the government has also agreed to accept concessional loan assistance equivalent to approximately Rs 18.92 billion from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group for the implementation of third phase of the Rani Jamara Kulariya Irrigation Project.

Likewise, as per the Cabinet decision, the government will entertain concessional loan assistance of USD 120 million (approximately Rs 16.74 billion) that includes USD 86.7 million of shorter maturity loan of 33.3 million of a concessional loan from the IDA of the World Bank Group for the Power Distribution Strengthening Programme (PDSIP). The meeting also agreed to accept of a grant of Euro 20 million from the Government of Germany for the same programme.

Similarly, the meeting decided to endorse the ‘Letter of Exchange’ (LoE) to amend the Protocol of the Nepal–India Transit Treaty, 2023, and to authorize a government representative to sign the document on its behalf. As per the meeting agreement, Minister for Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation, Deepak Khadka is set to attend the ‘National Forum on Pumped Storage Hydropower’ scheduled to take place on September 8-10 in Paris of France.