The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu on Sunday gifted 34 ambulances and 50 school buses to different organisations working in the fields of health and education.

The keys of the vehicles were handed over by Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava in the presence of Minister for Education, Science and Technology Ashok Kumar Rai.

Minister Rai in his remarks appreciated the Indian government for various ongoing developmental projects in Nepal and expressed that these will continue to strengthen people-to-people connectivity and the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Ambassador Srivastava stated that this has been one of the long-standing traditions of the Indian government under the Nepal-India Development Partnership Programme to bolster the efforts of the Nepal government to strengthen its infrastructure in the health and education sectors.

The Indian government has been gifting ambulances and school buses on the occasion of Independence Day and Republic Day of India every year since 1994 to various organisations in different parts of Nepal, the embassy said in a statement.

So far, 974 ambulances and 234 school buses have been gifted across Nepal, including those gifted today, according to the embassy.

“It is part of India’s continued support for the efforts of Nepal to strengthen health and education facilities and also facilitate easy physical access to these services,” reads the statement.