KATHMANDU: Pokhara Metropolitan City has a sister-city relationship with China’s Linzhi Municipality, which gifted an ambulance to Pokhara two years ago. However, the ambulance has remained abandoned at the Rasuwa customs yard ever since. As customs duty had to be paid, Pokhara Metropolitan City declined to accept the gift, and the ambulance has been lying there for two years, rusting and deteriorating.

China’s Linzhi Municipality donated a fully equipped Class ‘A’ ambulance to Pokhara, valued at approximately Rs 25 million. Such an ambulance does not yet exist in Kaski district. Kaski’s chief district officer (CDO) and chairperson of the District Ambulance Management Committee, Rudradevi Sharma, says that there has so far been no Class ‘A’ ambulance service in Kaski.

Had the ambulance been brought into operation, it would have been the first fully equipped ambulance in Kaski. A Class ‘A’ ambulance includes Advanced Life Support (ALS) facilities and requires highly trained health personnel.

Model of a Class ‘A’ ambulance

Such ambulances are used to transport critically ill patients to hospitals while providing essential life-saving care en route. The Ambulance Service Guidelines, 2025 stipulates that a Class ‘A’ ambulance must carry 25 types of life-saving equipment. Despite having these facilities, the ambulance has remained abandoned at the Rasuwa Customs Office due to Pokhara Metropolitan City’s lack of initiative in completing the customs clearance process.

The Government of Nepal had provisioned full customs duty exemption for importing ambulances valued up to Rs 1.6 million. Pokhara Metropolitan City sought similar customs exemption for the ambulance gifted by China.

However, citing legal provisions, the government did not grant customs exemption for it. Pokhara Metropolitan City did not wish to accept the ambulance by paying customs duty to provide service to the public. Pokhara Metropolitan Mayor Dhanraj Acharya says, “The ambulance is valued at around Rs 25 million. No budget allocation has been made by Pokhara Metropolitan City to clear an ambulance of such value. Since the metropolitan city is unable to pay the customs duty, the ambulance has remained abandoned.”

Since the ambulance arrived at Rasuwa Customs, Mayor Acharya has twice had the municipal budget approved by the municipal executive. Yet, he did not allocate funds in those budgets to clear the customs duty of the ambulance.

Instead, during this period, the mayor acquired a Fortuner vehicle seized by the Revenue Investigation Department for his personal use. For that, the metropolitan city paid Rs 6 million to the Department of Customs as informant expenses. That vehicle was completely burned during arson incidents in the Gen-Z movement on September 9, 2025. While an ambulance capable of saving critically ill patients by transporting them to hospitals remains stuck at customs, the metropolitan city has still not arranged funds to bring it in.

On the other hand, the ambulance has also remained stranded due to a dispute over who initiated its donation to Pokhara. Pokhara-based businessman Bishwoshankar Palikhe claims that the ambulance was gifted to Pokhara by Linzhi Municipality due to his personal initiative. Mayor Acharya, however, says it was gifted during his visit to China.

A Pokhara Metropolitan City vehicle set on fire during the Gen-Z movement.

Palikhe, a businessman involved in importing goods from China, says, “The ambulance came to Pokhara due to my personal initiative. We even lobbied with the central government to bring the ambulance with customs exemption. Despite repeatedly requesting then health minister Pradeep Paudel, the government did not grant customs exemption, citing the absence of legal provisions.”

Mayor Acharya says, “Pokhara has a sister-city relationship with Linzhi Municipality. When I visited China, they gifted the ambulance to me. Since it was not a vehicle for commercial use, we requested the government for customs exemption.”

According to Tulsi Prasad Bhattarai, chief customs officer at Rasuwa Customs Office, Pokhara Metropolitan officials had visited two years ago to understand the process of clearing the ambulance and were informed that legal provisions allowed customs exemption only for ambulances valued up to Rs 1.6 million. “At that time, they could not produce documents disclosing the ambulance’s price. They said they would return after obtaining a Cabinet decision for customs exemption, but they have not returned yet,” he says.

Mayor Acharya says Pokhara Metropolitan City has already decided to hand over the operation of the ambulance to Sisuwa Hospital under the metropolitan authority.

The government has amended the Economic Act to provide customs duty exemption for all types of ambulances. This provision has been implemented since the beginning of the current fiscal year. Customs Officer Bhattarai says, “After the amendment to the Economic Act, all types of ambulances are eligible for customs exemption. After that, we called Pokhara Metropolitan staff and asked them to complete the process and collect the ambulance. They still have not come.”

Classification of ambulances

According to CDO Sharma, the District Ambulance Management Committee meeting has already decided to move forward with the customs exemption process to bring the ambulance. “The committee meeting decided to proceed with customs exemption for the gifted ambulance and recommended it to the provincial ministry. After the decision goes through the federal Ministry of Health and then the Ministry of Finance, the ambulance will arrive. The process has already begun,” she says.

However, at Pokhara Metropolitan City, both the deputy mayor and the chief administrative officer are unaware of the condition of the gifted ambulance. Deputy Mayor Manju Devi Gurung says, “The mayor is the coordinator of the Health Division. Since that division is not under my responsibility, I am not informed about discussions and work carried out under it. I also have no information about the ambulance’s condition.”

Chief Administrative Officer Muktiram Aryal says he was transferred to Pokhara only two months ago and is unaware of the gifted ambulance. “It has only been two months since I was transferred here. I have no information about the gifted ambulance. Now, I will look into it,” he says.