Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit 17 fire tenders to Hitraj Pandey, the Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development amid a function last week. The request for these fire tenders was received from the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development for enhancing the fire-fighting capacity of municipal administration in different parts of Nepal. The ceremony was attended by many senior officials of the Government of Nepal and other distinguished guests.

According to a press release issued by Indian Embassy, the gifting of these fire tenders is a goodwill gesture on part of the Government of India towards modernizing the fire safety in Nepal.

The Government of India acceded to gift these 17 fire tenders with specifications based on IS 950: 1980 for the water tenders and IS 10460:1983 for the water and foam and mixed type fire tenders. The fire tenders have been procured at total cost of NRs 70.21 million.

The gifting of fire tenders to the Government of Nepal is in continuation to the efforts of the Government of India in supporting Nepal towards improvement of health, education and other essential facilities in Nepal. Since 1994, the Government of India has been gifting ambulances to different organizations and health institutions and so far 582 ambulances have been gifted. Similarly, so far 114 buses have been gifted to various schools and campuses in most of the districts of Nepal since 2002.

Additionally, during 2013 Constituent Assembly elections in Nepal, the Government of India gifted 48 vehicles to the Election Commission, 216 vehicles to the Nepal Army and 585 vehicles to Security Agencies of the Govt. of Nepal at total procurement cost of NRs. 1021 million for conducting successful elections. Apart from this 35 vehicles were gifted to the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) at a total cost of NRs 32.30 million.

The India-Nepal Economic program has an outlay of over NRs 76 billion with more than 533 large and small development projects completed or currently being implemented all across Nepal in cooperation with the Government of Nepal. These development projects mainly focused in education, health and infrastructure development sectors recognizing and responding to local needs to help the Government of Nepal achieving all inclusive socio-economic developments.