Kathmandu, 22 April: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has promised to provide a grant assistance of $25.6 million to help restore economic activity in parts of Nepal devastated by last year’s monsoon floods.

More than 300,000 people living in the eastern and far western region of the country were seriously affected by the August floods, and the landslides that followed.

Flood damage to infrastructure and livelihoods amounted to an estimated $88 million, and thousands of people, mostly poor, were displaced.

The meeting of the ADB board of directors approved the grant for funding the Emergency Flood Damage Rehabilitation Project jointly assisted by the ADB and UN Agencies, according to an ADB statement.

Under the project, which is focused on the Kailali, Kanchanpur and Sunsari districts, key infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, and irrigation channels will be built or repaired, and landslide stabilization work will be undertaken to avoid similar disasters in the future, added the statement.

Nepal has started importing 35 megawatts of electricity from India through the Duhabi-Kataiya transmission line from Wednesday.

The floods in Koshi river last year line had disrupted the line. Before the line was destroyed, Nepal had been importing 60 MW from India.

According to Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the import of power will not contribute to minimize the hours of load-shedding as the production capacity of Kulekhani Hydropower Project is at its lowest due to receding water level.

It is also reported that the project will stop generating power if the water level dips below 1485 m. The project is predicted to face a debacle in case the dry spell continues for two more weeks.

The 92 MW Kulekhani project has been producing 46 MW daily after one of the units at 60 MW Kulekhani-I broke down five months ago.