KATHMANDU, June 18: The government is preparing to construct dry port and international standard exhibition hall in Chobhar. The estimated budget of the project is around Rs 1.5 billion.

Prior to the construction of the project, Nepal Intermodal Transportation Development Committee under Ministry of Commerce has started to demolish the physical structures of Himal Cement Factory.

During the presentation of the annual budget for fiscal year 2013/14, the then government had announced to establish the international standard of exhibition hall and dry port at the unused land of Himal Cement Factory, citing that the current exhibition hall at Bhrikuti Mandap is small. It took almost two years for the government to finalize the papers of the land.

Following which Full Bright Consultancy was assigned, through the tender, to study and to present the DPR to the government. However, due to the delay of the consultancy, the further process was halted.

“We will call for the tender within mid-July”, said Laxman Bahadur Basnet of Nepal Intermodal Transportation Development Committee. With the financial assistance of Rs 1.50 billion of World Bank, the ministry is preparing to start the project in 816 Ropanis land of the cement factory.

“The construction of the dry port and the exhibition halls will be done simultaneously. Two hundred out of 816 Ropanis of total land will be used for the dry port where as the rest will be used for the exhibition halls”, informed Basnet.

After the completion of the project, the sealed imported containers shipped from Kolkata will be screened in this dry port and similarly, the export items will also be dispatched from here only.

There will be separate terminals for import and export. Each terminal will have capacity of 6 hundred cargo trucks.

Likewise, there will be two exhibition halls with the capacity of one thousand people at one time with parking capacity of 12 hundred vehicles.

The center will also have conference hall, theater, park, Kids corner, food stall, meeting hall, etc. According to the agreement paper with the World Bank in 2010, the project should be completed by 2019. However, the government has informed that the project duration will be extended with the mutual consent between two groups.