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The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors have approved $100 million in financing for the Nepal Quality Health Systems Program operation. The Program will improve the quality of healthcare services and increase the coverage of health insurance, and enhance the capacity of the healthcare system to prepare for and respond to health emergencies in Koshi and Gandaki provinces, according to a press release issued by the Washington-based bank's headquarters. “By prioritizing and investing in health, Nepal can reap multiple benefits including improved health outcomes, increased productivity, and economic growth,” said Faris Hadad-Zervos, World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. “The World Bank supports Nepal’s goal to put quality at the core of health system policy and planning and service delivery.” The Program will be implemented by the Ministry of Health and Population with the coordination of the Health Insurance Board at the federal level, and provincial and local governments in Koshi and Gandaki provinces to help achieve the strategic objectives of Nepal’s Health Sector Strategic Plan, 2022-2030. These include enhancing efficiency and responsiveness of the health system, promoting sustainable financing and social protection in health, and promoting equitable access to quality health services. “The Program supports the implementation of federalism and builds on Nepal’s first Program for Results in the health sector to address the challenges of access and quality and to build a resilient public health sector,” said Dr Feng Zhao, Practice Manager for Health, Nutrition and Population, South Asia Region. “The results achieved under this Program have the potential for scale-up to other provinces.” The financing for the Program is complemented by a $3.84 million grant from the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (HEPR) Trust Fund. The HEPR Trust Fund supports eligible countries and territories to improve their capacities to prepare, prevent, respond, and mitigate the impact of epidemics on populations.  

Rainfall continues to take place as a result of the influence of westerly winds and local winds in some places of Gandaki, Karnali, Lumbini and Sudurpaschim provinces. Meteorologist Ganga Nagarkoti said that although rainfall stopped since Saturday evening in Kathmandu there is a possibility of rainfall today as well. There is a probability of rainfall in many parts of the country including Kathmandu Valley today. Kathmandu Valley is likely to experience rain with thunder and lightning later this afternoon. According to the latest 20-hour statistics of the Weather Forecasting Division, Kathmandu Valley experienced the highest rainfall with 43 mm of rain on Saturday. It has been raining in many places of the country including the federal capital since Saturday. There is a possibility of rain with thunder and lightning in some places of Madhesh province on Sunday as well.

A Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) plane made a successful test flight in Resunga Airport at 7:39 am today. NAC's plane (9N-ABT) departed from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Kathmandu, landed at Resunga Airport in Simichaur of Resunga Municipality-10 in Gulmi. The NAC made a test flight today for commercial flights as per the agreement between the NAC and municipality. Spokesperson of the Nepal Airlines Operators Association Yograj Kandel said that plans are afoot for the commercial flights after today's successful test flight. He said that the NAC will begin commercial flight after carrying out needed assessment from a technical team. According to Kandel, the travel fare and the number of passengers in a flight would be determined after the study. "However, the plane fare could be around Rs 6,000 per person for the Resunga-Kathmandu flight," he added. Captain Manish Bista of NAC said that regular flights would be conducted after submitting today's flight report to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) within a week. Construction of the airport was completed some months ago after 16 years of its commencement. Constructed with the investment of Rs 330 million, the airport's runway is 520 meters long and 20 meters wide. Located at an elevation of 1,526 meters above the sea level, the airport is spread over 156 ropani of land. After the successful test flight, Mayor of Resunga Municipality Khildhowj Panthi expressed his happiness stating that the dream of folks here to travel to Kathmandu by plane is being materialized soon.  

With the impacts of the westerly wind in the country, there is probability of partial to general rainfall in the hilly belt of Koshi, Gandaki, Karnali and Sudurpaschim Provinces. The Weather Forecasting Division said that weather will be mainly fair in other parts of the country. Isolated brief rain or thundershowers is possible at a few places of the hilly regions of Gandaki Province, Karnali Province and Sudurpashchim Province and at one or two places of hilly regions of the rest of the provinces, the Division said. Tonight, there will be partly cloudy in the hilly areas and mainly fair to partly cloudy in Tarai areas. Isolated brief rain or thundershowers is possible at one or two places of hilly regions of Koshi Province and Gandaki Province tonight.

Three earthquakes hit Bajura district on Thursday and Friday. According to National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Centre, Lainchaur, three quakes took place with their epicenter in Dahakot of Bajura district. According to the Centre, the first quake with 4.9 Richter scale in magnitude occurred at 11:58 pm and second with 5.9 in the Richter scale at 1:30 am on Friday. Likewise, the third quake with 3.9 in the Richter scale jolted the district at 1:51 am. The details of the damages caused due to the quakes have not been received yet. Earlier, a quake had occurred with its epicenter at Jugada area of the district on April 17. The western belt of the country has been frequently witnessing earthquakes in recent days.

Finance Minister Dr Prakash Saran Mahat has directed the customs employees to work honestly and transparently. After inspecting Biratnagar Customs Office today, Finance Minister Mahat said, "You are in sensitive service like revenue collection of the state. No one has the right to misuse their responsibilities or carry out illegal activities. We will not excuse the trend of customs leakage. I am confident that you are making good attempts and will do better in the coming days." The evaluation of the employees would be done on the basis of their performance, he said. The finance minister opined that he had expected a significant increment in the recovery of customs with the end of the current fiscal year. He also asked authorities concerned not to put taxpayers in unnecessary trouble in the name of increasing revenue. Finance Minister Mahat mentioned, "Overall, let's work with transparency and build an easy and conducive environment for service recipients. Let's carry out work as per the rules and regulations."

The government has scrapped licenses of 33 construction companies. Issuing a notice today, the Construction Business Promotion Branch of the Ministry said the licenses of these companies were scrapped automatically as per the Clause 7 (3) of the Construction Business Act-2055 after the construction companies did not renew their licenses for fiscal year 2079/80. The Ministry had urged contractors to renew their licenses within April 13 for the fiscal year 2079/80. The government scrapped the licenses of the construction companied after they did not renew within the deadline.

Electric vehicles will come into operation in Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, after a long wait. These vehicles were lying idle under the open sky for more than two years due to the delay in the legal process in acquiring the operation permit and lack of the operation modality. The five electric buses and 14 vans given by donor agencies in grant assistance were sitting idle as the Lumbini Province Government failed to make arrangements for the legal process for operating them. Preparations are being made to operate these luxury vehicles shortly after the Province Government recently opened the way for the legal process for the same.  A meeting of the Province Council of Ministers on April 21 decided to give approval for operating these vehicles converting their number plates from white to green. Vehicles with white number plates indicate that they are operated for government offices while those with green number plates indicate operated for tourism purposes. These vehicles belong to the Lumbini Development Trust. LDT received these electric vehicles costing Rs 130 million under the Clean Energy Project. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided these vehicles as grant assistance. These vehicles were received through the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. The Government of Nepal had paid additional Rs 35 million as customs duty while bringing the vehicles to Nepal. Charging stations have also been constructed in Lumbini at a cost of Rs 139 million for the operation of these vehicles. The tires of several of these vehicles have gone flat while the batteries too have become dysfunctional for lack of regular charging as these vehicles remained abandoned for long. Each of the five buses is of 19 seat capacity while each of the 14 vans is of five seat capacity. The vehicles have automatic doors and are disabled-friendly. They were brought for the convenience of tourists in Lumbini and the nearby associated places related to Buddhism. These electric buses and cars were brought to Lumbini on November 24, 2020 with a goal of making Lumbini pollution-free.