View towers in Sindhuli remain idle

By Our Correspondent,Sindhuli, Jan. 30: The view towers built by the local governments in Sindhuli district have now become useless.

Three local levels have built the view towers in order to increase the source of their internal income by promoting tourism. In the district, Golanjor Rural Municipality, Phikkal Rural Municipality and Kamalamai Municipality had built view towers. 

Ghyanglekh Rural Municipality has laid the foundation stone for the construction of a view tower.

A four-storey view tower was built by Golanjor Rural Municipality spending Rs. 8.6 million in the Golanjor hill which lies in the border of wards 4, 5 and 6.

Locals have, however, said that the infrastructure to reach the view tower has not been built.

Chairman of the Golanjor Rural Municipality Shankar Baral said, “The village will not develop only by building concrete tower on a high hill. The livelihood of the people is on the one hand, and the construction of the view tower will not solve their problems,” he said. 

For development, they should be able to connect them with employment first, he said. 

According to the locals, the view tower was built by the first elected local government of Golanjor Rural Municipality. Along with the construction of the view tower, stone trails along  with the railings have been constructed at a cost of Rs. 7.5 million. But Golanjor Hill lacks infrastructure such as hotels and drinking water.

There is a big grassland area on Golanjor Hill from where people can see a large area of Terai and Himalayan ranges. 

There is a temple of Mahakali and below that there is also a temple of Golanjor Thakur. 

Earlier, a fair (jatra) used to be held at the Mahakali Temple on the night of Kojagrat Purnima. But with the destruction of the temple, the fair is no longer held now, said Lekh Bahadur Basnet, a local teacher.

Phikkal Rural Municipality Ward No. 3 has also built a 64-foot high seven-storey view tower on Phikkal Hill in the district. According to the Rural Municipality, about Rs. 10.5 million has been invested in the construction of the view tower by the rural municipality and other donor agencies.

Narayan Prasad Adhikari, information officer of the rural municipality, said that although the construction of the view tower was completed, it could not be opened due to the dispute. 

He said, “Initially, there was an attempt to inaugurate without completion of the construction, but later when it was completed, another party has not allowed to inaugurate the tower.” Since then, it has not been used systematically.

The non-inaugurated Phikkal Tower has binoculars for better view. From Phikkal, people can see Mount Everest, 26 districts of Nepal, Bihar of India and some mountain ranges of Tibet Autonomous Region of China. 

Transport facility has reached Phikkal at an altitude of 2,887 metres above sea level.

Similarly, a four-storey view tower has also been constructed in Kamalamai Municipality-4 Chaukot Danda. Locals have objected to the view tower, which was built with an investment of about Rs. 20.75 million by the Bagmati Province government. 

Likewise, the foundation stone has been laid for the construction of a five-storey view tower with an investment of Rs. 10.7 million in Gyanglekh Rural Municipality-1 Phaparchuli. 

Jagat Bahadur Bholan, chairman of the Rural Municipality, said the construction of view tower would begin from January 29.