KATHMANDU, Dec 1: The stream of people visiting Dharahara has not decreased although the government has set a fee of Rs 200 per person.
In six days, around 7,000 citizens paid the fee and visited Dharahara. The Central Project Implementation Unit under the Ministry of Urban Development reports that the government collected a revenue of Rs 12,15,925 after setting the fee for visiting Dharahara.
Ministry official Mahesh Rai reported that 1,719 people visited Dharahara on Saturday, 1,226 on Friday, 1,104 on Thursday, 1,246 on Tuesday, 970 on Monday, and 663 on Sunday, all after paying the fee. Saturday saw the highest revenue, with Rs 305,500 collected that day alone.
The authorities have decided to keep Dharahara open on Saturday and closed on Wednesday. Since last Sunday the government has charged a fee of Rs 200 to visit Dharahara. Before that, the public could climb Dharahara for free. The government opened Dharahara to the public on September 19 this year to mark Constitution Day.
The Cabinet made the decision last October to have the federal government take charge of the operation and management of Dharahara. Accordingly, the Ministry of Urban Development has made arrangements to lease Dharahara to the private sector for a specific period to manage its operation.
The Dharahara Debate
The Ministry has assigned 13 staff members to operate and manage Dharahara. It opens at 10:30 am and closes at 3:30 pm. One of the ministry's staff members speculated that if Dharahara remained open from 8 am to 8 pm, it could generate at least Rs 500,000 in revenue per day. In any case, the authorities currently keep Dharahara open for only a specific time.
Damak View Tower waiting inauguration
The View Tower in Jhapa has not been operational for almost a year despite being completed a year ago.
The contractor company handed the View Tower over to the Intensive Urban and Building Construction Project Office in Jhapa under the Ministry in December 2023. However, officials have not inaugurated the View Tower yet, so it has not become operational.
Sources from the ministry say that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli may inaugurate the View Tower after returning from his visit to China. The ministry has confirmed that it is making preparations accordingly. The government has decided to operate and manage six prominent structures, including the Damak View Tower, Butwal International Conference Hall, Godawari-based Sunrise Hall, and Dharahara.
The government has decided that a single development committee under the ministry will handle the operation and management of these structures. This committee will manage the Damak View Tower, the International Conference Center in New Baneshwor, Kathmandu, Sunrise Hall in Godavari, Lalitpur, Butwal International Conference Hall in Rupandehi, and the Butwal International Exhibition Center. The Ministry of Urban Development has established a special structure operation and management development committee, chaired by the ministry’s secretary, for this purpose, as stated in the official gazette published on November 18.
The Damak View Tower, built at a cost of Rs 2 billion, is located about six kilometers west of Damak Bazaar. Therefore, its operation and management are expected to be costly. Since it is about six kilometers away from the market, the likelihood of making a profit by setting up shopping malls, gyms, hospitals, or beauty parlors there is low in the immediate future.
Bijay Kumar Sah, the managing director of the construction company Om Sairam Construction, claimed that even after one year has passed since the handover of the View Tower, the ministry is yet to pay about Rs 5.2 million in retention money (a deposit kept for work to be completed until the project is finished), despite the bank guarantee.
Project Chief Ramesh Thing stated that all payments due to the contractor have been made. He also mentioned that the contractor company is responsible for maintenance for one year after the completion of construction. Therefore, the retention money held for maintenance cannot be refunded for one year, according to him.
The Damak View Tower covers nearly five bighas of land in Ward-3 of Damak Municipality. The project contractor signed a contract on July 12, 2019, to complete the project by July 11, 2021, at a cost of Rs 1.56 billion. After failing to meet the deadline, the contractor extended the deadline to July 12, 2023. Since the work remained incomplete, the contractor extended the deadline for the third time. During the second extension, the project incurred an additional Rs 127.81 million in costs, raising the revised contract amount to Rs 1.6642 billion.
