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NTC to expedite phone distribution
LALITPUR, DEC 26 - Minister for Information and Communications Kamal Thapa has said that Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), the state-run telecoms operator, is planning to distribute telephone lines in Kathmandu within three day of demand within a year.
Telecommunications has become a necessity and the government has directed the operator to expedite the distribution and has awarded licence to the private companies in order to make the telecoms services more efficient and competitive, he added.
Minister Thapa said this while inaugurating Locus 2003: First International Technological Festival here today.
"The organisation of the festival was a commendable job done by the students. It will raise awareness and enhance the knowledge on information and communications technology (ICT) and would contribute to the development of the knowledge-based industry," said Minister Thapa.
ICT is an emerging industry, which is crucial in the development of the nation, but along with the development, the gap between the rich and the poor known as the digital divide is also widening alarmingly, he added.
"Therefore, distributing the benefits brought about by the development in ICT has become a challenge. We need to create employment opportunity while producing manpower in the field," he said.
Suprabha Shakya, a representative of students, said that the event was organised with an objective of bringing out the dormant skills of the students from ICT sector.
Bijaya Raj Bhattarai, another student, lamented at the poor participation of the students of engineering colleges.
There are 24 colleges that offer various engineering subjects and 8,836 engineers including all fields are produced every year, but only 300 students are participating in the event, he said.
Open software and hardware competition, paper presentation contest, seminars inter-engineering college quiz contest and robot exhibition by the Robotics Club of Institute of Engineering, Pulchwok Campus are the main attraction of the seven-day event that kicked off today.Posted on: 2003-12-27 04:14
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