Kathmandu: The newly appointed chairman of Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited-(KUKL) Janak Raj Shah has stated that about 1100 employees of the NWSC will be shifted to the KUKL. While stating the plan to make Nepali manpower efficient with the assistance of the main donor Asian Development Bank, chairman Shah told that Nepali got the drinking water supply management in the Valley from the grip of a foreign company like Severn Trent and it is a challenging job.

Stating that the KUKL is on its way to serve its consumers as per the government-public partnership, Sharma told Gorkhapatra that KUKL is yet to receive the reports on Valley drinking water supply and will go into action from mid January 2008.

The KUKL has authorized capital of Rs. 450 million. Nepal Government, Kathmandu Municipality, Lalitpur Municipality, Bhaktapur Municipality, Madhyapur Thimi Municipality, Kirtipur Municipality and Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries are the investors of the company. The responsibility of drinking water supply and distribution in the Kathmandu Valley is with the KUKL and the NWSC will work outside the Valley.

The board meeting of KUKL management committee elected Janak Raj Sharma, a government appointee in the management committee, as the chairman for a year unanimously. Denying some news reports about disputes in the board chairman shah said, "The rumour about disputes in the KUKL board is baseless. There is a cordial environment among the members. There were talks and discussions in the board meeting but chairman was elected unanimously without any pressure from political parties, leaders or ministers."

The members of KUKL include Suresh Kumar Basnet, Indra Man Singh Suwal, Rudra Prasad Gautam, Shashin Joshi, Kamlesh Kumar Agrawal, Dhruba Bahadur Shrestha and Himeshananda Vaidya as the company Secretary. According to the company, a team of Suresh Kumar Basnet and Rudra Prasad Gautam has been formed with Dhruba Bahadur Shrestha as the coordinator to work for transition management and management of the company.

Source: Gorkhapatra, November 19, 2007