Kathmandu, Nov 7: The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu handed over the Mangaladevi Birthing (Maternity) Centre at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) to the Hospital representatives on Tuesday. The Centre was built as part of the commemorating 20 years of implementation of the High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDPs) in Nepal. The Centre was built with India’s financial assistance of Rs 44.04 million as an HICDP under Nepal-India Development Cooperation framework.
According to the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, the project was handed over by Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat, Minster for Federal Affairs and General Administration Anita Devi and Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava. Political representatives, officials of Nepal Government, social workers and local community leaders were present at the event, the Embassy stated in a press statement. Likewise, agreements for three more HICDP projects of Rs 130 million to be implemented in Baitadi and Mustang districts were also signed on the occasion. India’s HICDPs were launched in 2003 through bilateral agreement between the governments.
On the occasion, Finance Minister Mahat thanked India for its continuous support in the creation of development infrastructure in Nepal and assured of full support in implementation of such projects. Likewise, Minister for Anita Devi said that such projects despite being small in size create big impact on people’s lives. In his remarks, Ambassador Srivastava said that nearly 550 projects have been taken up under this framework in various sectors including education, health care, road and bridges, river training, drinking water and others in the past two decades. “Of these, 480 projects have been completed and remaining are ongoing,” the Indian Ambassador said.
