By Laxman Paudel
Bhairahawa, Jan. 26: The 5,000-seat conference and meditation centre being constructed in Lumbini will be inaugurated on May 16.
According to the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT), work on the huge building is nearly complete and, if everything goes as planned, it will be inaugurated on the occasion of Buddha Jayanti later this year.

“We only need to carry out some landscaping work and construct the boundary wall,” Saroj Bhattarai, project manager at LDT, told The Rising Nepal. “We plan to inaugurate it on Buddha Jayanti.”
Due to a lack of space for large gatherings and assemblies, the LDT began constructing the conference centre four years ago. The foundation stone for it was laid by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on April 30, 2018 on the occasion of the 2562nd Buddha Jayanti and Anak-Arghakhanchi-Babul JV had been contracted to finish the centre by July 2020.

However, the contractor could not finish work within the stipulated deadline. So, an extension of three months was granted. But still it could not complete the centre. “The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the pace of work,” Bhattarai, who is also a senior engineer, said. “So, the contract has been extended to July 2022.”

The LDT had initially only planned to build the conference centre, but later various structures were added to the project. “The 5,000-seat centre building, built on four Bighas of land, has been completed and currently, work on the construction of other structures added later is going on,” Bhattarai informed.

Bhattarai told The Rising Nepal that the total work had been divided into two phases – the first included the construction of the centre and cost Rs. 330 million and the second phase includes the construction of additional structures which is estimated to cost Rs. 270 million.

Former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had promised to construct a large conference centre in Lumbini after rain and winds disrupted the 2560th Buddha Jayanti celebrations on May 21, 2016. Construction began two years after this promise.

The LDT has claimed that the design for the conference centre is the most unique and exemplary in all of South Asia. It has been equipped with Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) panels that can decrease or increase the temperature by six to eight degrees depending on the weather.