Dharahara area reconstruction moving slowly

By Sushma Maharjan

Kathmandu, Aug. 2: The 11-st orey Dharahara, built in the 1830s by Nepal's first Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa, was razed to the ground by the 2015 earthquake. More than seven years has passed since then, but the Dharahara is still far from getting back to its feet. 

The former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli laid the foundation stone for its reconstruction on December 27, 2018, after which the reconstruction process gathered momentum. But the process is still ongoing. Oli had hastily inaugurated it on April 24, 2021, even before the reconstruction was far from completion.  

However, after the inauguration, the construction work has been going on at a snail’s pace.

Only 45 percent of the overall infrastructural development was completed at the time of its inauguration. The construction work sped up right before the inauguration, but now it seems as if it was done just to show off. 

According to the 58th Annual Report of the Auditor General, 2021, only 55 percent financial progress and 45 percent physical progress were completed at the time of inauguration.  

The initial contract, signed on September 30, 2018, stipulated the completion date within two years after the start. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government extended the deadline.  

Sanjay Nakarmi, project manager of GITC- Raman JV, said that the government extended the deadline to mid-October 2022. This is the fourth extension. However, the work is unlikely to complete by then as well, he added. 

He said that although the construction of the tower has been completed, the exterior beautification work is still pending. According to him, 75 percent of the overall physical progress and 67 percent of DPR has been completed at a cost of Rs 2.25 billion. 

Similarly, the work of the administrative building, utility buildings, underground parking, and the remains of the tower damaged by the earthquake to be placed in a glass frame as an earthquake memorial is still underway.

Nakarmi attributed the delay in the construction to the extension of the construction area. 

He said that the project initially planned in four ropanis of land has been extended to 42 ropanis. In between the time, the nearby buildings of post office, foreign employment office, employment provident fund and others were added to the project. Thus, demolishing those buildings and the reconstructing them delayed the project, he added.