KATHMANDU, Sept 12: The reconstruction of the Rani Pokhari – located at the heart of the capital city – will resume this week following an agreement between the Department of Archaeology (DoA) and Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC). 

The Department had instructed KMC on September 1 to halt the ongoing reconstruction after finding out that the reconstruction was taking place against the set criteria. 

As per the agreement to correct the structures that have already been built with the rest of the construction to take place in adherence to the instruction of the Archaeology Department, the reconstruction will start from this week, DoA Spokesperson, Ram Bahadur Kunwar said. 

Department has instructed the KMC to rebuid the historic Bal Gopaleshwor temple at the centre of the pond in its old stature. The DoA intervened as the reconstruction was taking place with use of cement, gravel, sand and rods. 

The contract agreement for rebuilding Rani Pokhari was held for a budget of Rs 62.9 million while the contractor company has already spent Rs 15 million till date. 

The massive 7.6 Richter scale earthquake, which struck on April 25, 2015, had caused considerable damages to the Bal Gopaleshwor temple and inflicted partial damages to the surrounding walls. 

The pond was built in a time span of two years in 1727 BS. The pond's southern section has a white sculpture of an elephant with the statue of the then King Pratap Malla and his children. All four corners of the pond have temples dedicated to Hindu God Ganesha incarnated in a form with 16 arms. RSS