The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) car rally has entered Nepal via Kakadbhitta, Jhapa district, on Friday.

Minister for Education and Sports, Dr Mangal Siddhi Manandhar, Madhav Prasad Ghimire, Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, and Officiating Chief of the Nepal Tourism Board, Subash Nirola, and others welcomed the rally in Kakadbhitta this morning.

A total of 120 people from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and 30 vehicles are in the rally.

The participants of the rally are scheduled to stay in Pokhara tonight and leave for Kathmandu on Saturday.

Participants of the rally will stay at Hyatt Regency Hotel on Saturday where cultural shows and exhibitions promoting Nepal's identity will be organised. The rally will travel to Lumbini before leaving for India via Mahendranagar.

Finally the rally will end in Male on April 14, where 15th SAARC summit is expected to be held. The rally will reach New Delhi on April 3rd and take part in the 14th SAARC summit.

The SAARC car rally, which began from Dhaka, Bangladesh, eight days ago, is scheduled to cross 8,200 kilometers before ending in the Maldives.

The major objective of the rally is to promote regional connectivity, people-to-people contact, goodwill, trade, tourism and business among the member states, the organisers said.