Acting PM says govt will establish an Engineering University

Acting Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar Saturday said that the government would establish engineering university and staff college to make the engineering services and education more effective.

Addressing the closing ceremony of SAARC Engineers' Convention, he urged the engineers to dedicate themselves in playing roles to materialize the map and imaginations of the government and politicians.

The SAARC level seminar on ‘Regional cooperation and knowledge management for innovation’ was jointly organized by Nepal Engineers Association (NEA) and Federation of Engineering Institutions of South and Central Asia (FEISCA) – an association of SAARC member countries’ engineering institutions.

"Engineers are the development agents and they should be sincerely involved in construction and development," Gachchhadar said.

Acting PM Gachchhadar said that the political engineering of the country was not good and the engineers should not be affected by it.

NEA president Dhruba Raj Thapa said that the government should involve engineers in every step of development works. "The government should create an environment for it by developing new policy."

Senior engineers from SAARC members and other countries participated in the conference.

Chairman of Nepal Engineering Council Satya Narayan Shah, coordinator of Technical Committee Kamal Pandey and engineer of Asian Development Bank Bindu Nath Lohani discussed about the post earthquake reconstruction in Nepal.

The conference has brought out a 10-point declaration on post-quake reconstruction.

The convention’s major focus was the post-quake reconstruction and rehabilitation, along with disaster management and solution to the energy crisis.

It declared that for the post-quake reconstruction and economic prosperity, the government should expand the engineering services to every local body.

“The convention discussed the reasons behind Nepal’s underdevelopment and the steps that the government needs to take specially in the reconstruction and rehabilitation process,” said Thapa. "We will submit the declaration to the respective government agencies and other stakeholders."

Earlier, NEA concluded its 14^th national convention with the slogan ‘Engineering Excellence: Impetus for National Advancement’ in Kathmandu on Friday.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli inaugurated the convention attended by about 1,500 engineers across the country and 50 foreign delegates.

The NEA, which is one of the oldest professional associations in the country, was established 53 years ago.