China has agreed to provide additional grants for the construction of a polytechnic institute in central Nepal, a Nepali government official said in Kathmandu Friday.

 

"China has agreed to grant additional 125 million Nepali rupees (US$1.79 million) for the construction work of Nepal Banepa Polytechnic Institute at north suburb of Banepa town of Kavreplanchok district, some 25 km east of Kathmandu," Surya Bahadur Sakha, director at Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) Polytechnic Division of Nepal, told Xinhua.

 

China had already agreed to grant 335.53 million Nepali rupees (US$4.79 million) for the construction and related work of the project on August 5, 2005, Sakha noted, adding, the earlier grant did not include the construction of retaining wall, land leveling and sewage drainage at the construction site.

 

The second intend letter of the agreement was signed by Yu Huajin, president of China Heilongjiang International Economic and Technical Cooperative Cooperation, the project carrier, and Agni Prasad Kafle, member secretary of CTEVT.

 

The institute will offer about 220 full time residential students enrolled in long term courses and about 300 students enrolled in short term training courses on travel and tourism including hotel management, electronics, information technology, computer office management and beauty cosmetology.

 

"The project embodies the everlasting friendship between our two countries as an outcome of the economic and technical cooperation," Sakha said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2005)