Nepal Army (NA) has brought 14.8 tons of medical supplies from China in a wide-body plane Thursday morning.
NA Spokesperson Bigyan Dev Pandey confirmed that the plane that had gone to Guangzhou Wednesday evening has arrived with 14.8 tons of medical supplies Thursday morning.
This is the last flight bringing materials procured by the NA from China.
The NA had planned to bring 47.5 tons of the 341 tons of materials it procured from China by air and the rest by land. It has already brought 18.84 tons in a wide-body plane on May 19. It was to bring the rest toda but could only bring 14.8 tons. It will now bring the remaining materials by land
Pandey added that materials are transported in volume by land and the total quantity to be brought by land accordingly was 2,662 cubic meters. "1,200 cubic meters out of that has already arrived," he stated. "Five trucks have already left Tatopani border point while more trucks are arriving in Khasa."
The NA has signed an agreement worth US$ 18,441,706 (around Rs 2.25 billion) with the Sinopharm Group, owned by the Chinese government, to procure 341 tons of medical supplies.
The government on April 1 had unilaterally revoked the contract with Omni Group, that had brought the first lot of medical materials from China three days earlier, citing the latter's inability to bring additional materials. Omni Group, with no previous experience in medical supplies, was given the contract without any bidding process in a process that lacked transparency.
It then decided to hand over the responsibility of bringing the materials to the Nepal Army through government to government arrangements.
Correction: We had earlier reported the quantity of medical supplies otherwise. The error is regretted.
