KUENSELTHAT THE PEOPLE SHALL BE INFORMED FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2020 NPL incurs Druk Gyalpo’s big loss to RICBL, 1188 no salary revision for Briefly employees Jomotshangkha update Major reforms The person from initiated under Jomotshangkha who was earlier suspected new CEO of Covid-19 completed quarantine yesterday. MB Subba He tested negative three times on the RT-PCR. The Royal Insurance Cor- He tested negative on poration of Bhutan Limited the rapid test yesterday (RICBL), one of the oldest following which he was financial institutions, had suf- released. fered such a huge loss in 2018 that it was not able to afford a pay raise to its employees. Inside In 2018, the RICBL suffered a whopping loss of Nu 1.2 bil- lion (B) pertaining mainly to Amphan non-performing loans (NPL). Irrigation canal According to company restored, farmers officials, the overall financial look forward to performance in 2019 was not Changla season satisfactory despite a series of spares Bhutan Pg 7 reforms. The annual financial statements for the year are still No major damages reported being prepared. Kuensel reporters the detailed project report pro- cliffs, it would be challenging and The company’s CEO, Weather jections for January to April this also risky for labourers at the site Karma, said that the company he heavy down- year and generated about 51.46 because of the continuous falling did not revise the salary due pour that cy- million units. boulders. to the huge financial loss. But clone Amphan Meanwhile, the Nganglam- he added that the lack of a pay triggered didn’t Amphan impact Pemagatshel and Samdrup- raise was a “non-issue”, saying cause major Meanwhile, there were several jongkhar-Trashigang highway that he had explained his posi- Tdamages in the country, but roadblocks along the Gyalpoizh- remain open to traffic. 17 12 tion to the employees. MAX MIN helped Mangdechhu hydroelec- ing- Nganglam highway between DoR officials said a few road- Other reasons for the poor tric plant (MHEP) to generate 38km and 44km. Department of blocks on the Nganglam-Pema- performance were interest more than its capacity yesterday. Road (DoR) said that the road- gatshel highway were cleared expenses on borrowings and The plant started generating blocks could be cleared by today immediately. “But it would be non-essential expenses. electricity more than its capacity if the weather improves. better if commuters avoid travel- But the CEO said that the from yesterday with 791.39 Meg- If the weather does not per- ling along the highway as boul- company saved about Nu awatt (MW) of power generation mit, it could take more than a ders are falling continuously.” 100M by cutting non-essential achieved yesterday afternoon. week to clear the blocks. This is A fully loaded oil tanker has 20 13 expenses. The company also This was 10 percent more than the third time the highway has been struck since morning at MAX MIN did well on the insurance front its capacity of 720MW. been blocked this year. Reotala slide point on the Gel- and made a profit of Nu 600M. The plant generated a rev- DoR Assistant engineer in ephu-Trongsa highway causing With a series of reforms, the enue of about Nu 7.47 billion to Nganglam, Jai Kumar, said they traffic jam from both sides. DOR company’s performance had the nation since its commercial could not visit the site because of Regional Office in Trongsa is ar- significantly improved except operation in July last year. falling boulders. Excavators are ranging additional machines to in NPL. But the CEO said the MHEP managing director, ready at the site. clear the road. It is expected to Covid-19 pandemic had further AK Mishra said that the actual Jai Kumar said since it is lo- open to traffic towards the even- complicated the NPL issue. generation exceeded beyond cated at a rocky area with steep ing today. Pg 2 www.kuenselonline.com Pg 2 HOME PAGE 2 Friday, May 22, 2020| KUENSEL Cyclone Amphan disrupts internet connectivity BT restores its data services after almost 17 hours of blackout Younten Tshedup 1:45am on Wednesday. tablished by 4pm yesterday. took out the internet connectivity the Indian partners have said BT’s chief executive officer, TashiCell suffered some which included the two links in that there would be some sort of While cyclone Amphan passed Karma Jurme said that both the glitches in its data service as two Gelephu and Phuentsholing that “good connectivity” by the end without much destruction, the Phuentsholing and Gelephu of its three internet links were runs on the power grid, he said, of the day. past two days has exposed how links were down after fibre ca- also damaged in Kolkata. How- adding that unlike the two links, Meanwhile, BT’s CEO said vulnerable the country’s com- bles in Kolkata were damaged ever, there was no complete in- the Airtel link in Phuentsholing that the long awaited third in- munication network is during due to the impact of the cyclone. ternet outage for TashiCell users. was running on its on fibre and ternational internet gateway times of disasters. He said that while BT tried TashiCell’s general manager was not affected by the forced from Bangladesh would provide Among others, a major dis- to establish a network redun- with the network and carrier shutdown. Bhutan a better geographical re- ruption resulting from the cy- dancy by having two internet services department, Ganga R “Although we did not suffer dundancy in an event of similar clone in the neighbouring West providers – Tata and Airtel, the Sharma said that the two links a total blackout, we were af- emergencies. Bengal was on the country’s two links had a convergence from Tata entering from Gelephu fected. Since we have only one However, Ganga R Sharma internet connectivity. point in Kolkata. “We are work- and Phuentsholing were dam- functional link for now, we are said that the impact of the cy- Bhutan Telecom’s (BT) data ing with our partners in India aged by cyclone Amphan. The operating at 40 percent of our clone would have been there service suffered a complete out- to restore the network as soon Airtel link in Phuentsholing was total capacity,” he said. “The link even if the Bangladesh internet age towards the evening on May as possible. We are hopeful to still functional as of yesterday. is congested and therefore, users link was in place. “The current 20, until late afternoon yester- have the services back online He said that given the ex- will experience a slower internet cyclone is affecting all West Ben- day. BT managed to reestablish by afternoon today.” treme weather condition in Kol- connectivity.” gal and Guwahati areas includ- the link between 11pm and The data service was rees- kata, to prevent further damage Ganga R Sharma said that ing Bangladesh.” to the distribution equipment, while they are working with He said that given Bhutan’s the Power Grid Corporation of their partners to restore the links, geographical location, it has no Amphan spares India decided that all the power given the extensive damage and other option but to depend on grids (power transmission tow- the risks from the proceeding the Indian partners. “While we Bhutan ers) through which the internet cyclone, immediate restoration have control over things within fibre runs, were to be shutdown. was difficult. the country, when it comes to From Pg 1 ing after finding the faults. What When the forced shutdown Whole restoration would internet, we have to depend on Trashigang-Samdrupjong- caused the outage is unknown. was carried out in Kolkata, it take a few days, but he said that our partners outside.” khar highway is blocked at 69km Meanwhile in Tsirang, heavy from Samdrupjongkhar towards rain and windstorm early morn- Tsheringkhor. ing yesterday flattened about 80 The Tsirang-Sarpang was decimal maize field belonging to NPL incurs big loss to RICBL, no salary temporarily blocked at Darachhu six households in Rangthangling revision for employees for two hours. It opened by 5pm gewog. yesterday. DoR officials said Similar damages were re- From Pg 1 and policy parts so that each management officer in every machinery is stationed at the ported in Patshaling gewog but According to the CEO, the would have specific functions. department. site since there is landslide from gup Chabi Kumar Rai said dam- transformation process in RICBL “Now we have branches that The RICBL has been re- continuous rain in the area. ages would be assessed once the would take some years. “In the focus on business. The corpo- cording consistent growth in weather improves. next five years or so, RICBL will rate office will do product and insurance business account- East Bhutan Burichhu-Sergithang bypass be the most profitable and pro- scheme designing and risk man- ing for 12.47 percent growth in In Mongar, three households in road is partially blocked by land- fessional institution in the coun- agement, monitoring, auditing premium income in 2018. The Thangrong gewog were moved to slide and boulders. Sergithang try,” he said. and reconciliation,” he said. deterioration of the financial per- a safer location yesterday. gup Man Bir Rai said that the road The 44-year-old insurance The RICBL, he said, was the formance is mainly attributed to Mongar dzongkhag disaster could be cleared manually once company’s losses pertain to most complicated among the fi- the increase in the impairment management officer, Karma, said the rain subsides. loans and advances to custom- nancial institutions as it provides of loans and advances. the families were shifted into the Most of the dzongkhags did ers, which for 2018 was Nu all types of insurances, includ- As part of its revival and re- temporary shelter made out of not report any damages.