Names of 490 quake victims carved in Barpak Memorial Garden

By Gun Bahadur Roka,Sulikot, July 24: A memorial garden has been built in Barpak, Sulikot Rural Municipality-1, Gorkha, to honour the 490 people from Gorkha who died in the devastating earthquake of 2015. 

According to engineer Purushottam Pangeni from the Federal Project Implementation Unit, Pokhara, the names of the earthquake victims have now been inscribed in the memorial.

Although there was a plan to include the names of victims from all 14 affected districts on separate pillars, this could not be done due to the Home Ministry’s failure to provide a full list of the victims. As a result, only the names of those who died in Gorkha district have been carved.

Bishnu Prasad Bhatt, Chairperson of Barpak Sulikot Rural Municipality, said that the decision to collect and display the names of victims from all 14 districts was made in 2015. However, despite repeated requests from the Home Ministry, the names were not provided, causing delays in the project.

Pangeni added, “Due to the lack of names from the other 13 districts, the central implementation unit finally decided to include the names of victims from only Gorkha in the memorial.”

The delay in receiving the names also held up the construction work. Although the contract to build the memorial was signed on November 30, 2017, with a budget of Rs. 130.6 million, and was supposed to be completed by 2019, the project got completed nearly eight years later.

The memorial has been constructed on 216 ropanis of government land in Barpak-1. It includes several structures such as memory pillars, gardens and a mandala designed to hold commemorative stones. A 400-metre access road to the garden has also been blacktopped.

Pangeni shared that the site now features a ticket counter, a canteen park, well-equipped toilets, a dining hall and parking space for over 30 vehicles.