School building built with Indian assistance inaugurated in Nepal

Karun Bansal, Head of Administration, Embassy of India to Nepal along with other Nepali representatives, on Wednesday inaugurated a school building constructed with India's assistance in Nepal's district of Gorkha.

The new building of Shree Himalaya Secondary School, Shahid Lakhan Rural Municipality-6, Ghairung in Gorkha, has been built under 'Nepal-Bharat Development Cooperation' with the grant of Nepali Rs 43.31 million, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

"The building has three floors and consists of 18 classrooms, a science lab, one room each for administration, teachers, and principal, and separate station facilities for girls and boys," MEA informed in a statement.

It further stated that the project was taken up as a High Impact Community Development Project (HICDPs) earlier called Small Development Projects, under an agreement between the governments of Nepal and India. The project was implemented by the District Coordination Committee, Gorkha.

Since 2003, India has taken up over 520 HICDPs in Nepal and has completed 446 projects, of which 50 are in Province 4, including seven in the Gorkha District. However, four Government of India-funded projects are under various stages of completion/implementation in Province-4, the MEA said.

In addition, the Embassy of India has gifted 12 ambulances to various health posts and NGOs in Gorkha district.

Under reconstruction grant assistance of the Indian government to Nepal, a total of 71 educational institutions are being built across eight districts of Nepal affected by the 2015 earthquake. Out of these, seven schools are in Gorkha and three schools have been completed and inaugurated by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on November 27, 2020.

"Work on the remaining four schools is ongoing. India is also reconstructing 30 earthquake-affected hospitals in Gorkha," the MEA said.

Shree Himalaya Secondary School was established in 1960 and upgraded subsequently in 2010 to Secondary School. It has about 250 students, and more than 60 per cent of them are girls.

( With inputs from ANI )