NEWS

,Air Arabia — the Middle East and North Africa’s first and largest low-cost carrier (LCC) —has announced the introduction of its new European destination, Prague in Czech Republic.Air Arabia’s inaugural flight to the city will commence on December 11, as per a press statement.A cake-cutting ceremony was organised in Kathmandu on…

A preliminary feasibility study conducted by a Chinese company has concluded that extending a railway line from Kyirong of Tibet to Kathmandu of Nepal will cost around Rs 257 billion. Likewise, the project will take around nine years to complete, according to the report.Senior engineer of the Department of Railways, Prakash Upadhyaya,…

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the state-owned power utility has completed charging its Dhalkebar substation, enabling it to import more electricity from India via Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur cross-border transmission line during the next dry season. The power utility stopped importing power from the cross-border line for four days starting from…

Nepal has witnessed 520,000 tourist arrivals in the first six months of 2018, official statistics show.According to the Department of Immigration (DoI) stats, the inflow was up by 13 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. A total of 460,304 foreign tourists had visited Nepal in the first six months of 2017.Moreover,…

The Nepal Electricity Authority’s (NEA) plan to install underground power cables in the northern and central parts of Kathmandu has suffered a setback as potential contractors have quoted a far higher price than its estimate.The state-owned power utility is planning to replace overhead power lines with underground cables in areas served by…

The minimum wage of domestic labourers has been increased 38 percent to Rs13,450 per month. The raise will come into effect from the start of the new fiscal year. A meeting held between the umbrella organisations of various business sectors and labour unions on Monday agreed to hike the minimum wage. Previously, the minimum wage was Rs9,700 per…

The Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) authority has asked domestic airline companies to mandatorily park their aircraft at the designated airports starting July 1.Stating that since the TIA has been constantly facing aircraft parking problems after domestic airlines started to park a majority of their aircraft at the country’s sole…

The Department of Electricity Development (DoED) is preparing to award a survey licence for the largest ever hydropower project in Nepal to state-owned Vidhyut Utpadan Company.The Mugu Karnali Hydroelectric Project located in northwestern Nepal has an installed capacity of 1,902 MW. The 1,200 MW Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project in central…

The Community Homestay Network (CHN) has been selected by Booking.com as one of the top 10 world startups in sustainable tourism for 2018. It has been awarded a grant of 225,000 euros (Rs28.59 million) from the Booking Booster Programme.The CHN is a network of community homestays in Nepal operating in line with the spirit of sustainable and…

Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has not been able to fly its new Chinese-made planes for lack of qualified pilots since they arrived in February, and they could remain in their hangars indefinitely, company officials said.The state-owned carrier moved to hire three Chinese pilots following instructions from Tourism Minister Rabindra…