KATHMANDU, June 4: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that protecting the environment is an important agenda of the current government. Inaugurating the half marathon organized by Kantipur Media Group in Kathmandu this morning, Deuba said that protecting the environment is now an important agenda of the world and the Government of Nepal is also serious about it.

The 900MW Arun-3 Hydropower Project accomplished its key milestone—Financial Closure (FC) on February 6, 2020. A consortium of seven banks, including two Nepalese banks—Nabil and Everest—put a total of NPR 101 billion to the project, which has the total investment of approximately NPR144 billion. With the FC, the project has guaranteed its financial capability and we will witness its commercial operation by 2023 given any technical hitches don’t stall its construction. Arun-3 has become the largest project in terms of capacity and investment in Nepal.

KATHMANDU, May 16: Carrying out mega projects without the approval of the  Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report or in breach of the report will incur hefty fines for mega development projects or industrial ventures, following the endorsement of the Environment Protection Bill by  parliament.