KATHMANDU, Dec 7: Nearly a year after completing its construction, authorities are set to open the View Tower in Damak, Jhapa, for the general public. Project chief Ramesh Thing from the Integrated Urban Development and Building Construction Project under the Ministry of Urban Development confirmed that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will formally inaugurate the tower on Sunday, marking the start of its commercial operation. Deputy Prime Minister and Urban Development Minister Prakash Man Singh will also attend the inauguration ceremony.
The Ministry of Urban Development is organizing the program. Secretary Gopal Sigdel and other senior officials from the ministry will attend the inauguration ceremony. A development committee led by the ministry's secretary will operate the View Tower. Until the appointment of an executive director, the ministry plans to assign a deputy secretary-level official to manage and oversee the tower's operations.
The formation order assigns a single development committee to operate and manage six important structures, including Dharahara, View Tower, and Sunrise Hall. The committee can issue tenders and lease these structures to the private sector for a specified period while managing and operating them, as outlined in the order.
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The contractor company handed over the View Tower to the Integrated Urban Development and Building Construction Project Office in Jhapa under the Ministry of Urban Development in December 2023. However, the View Tower remained non-operational for a long time.
The View Tower in Damak, built at a cost of Rs 2 billion, stands about 6 kilometers west of Damak Bazaar. Therefore, experts expect its management and operational works to be expensive. With its location six kilometers away from the market, setting up a shopping mall, gym, hospital, or beauty parlour there is unlikely to be profitable immediately.
The View Tower in Damak covers approximately five bighas of land in Ward-3 of Damak Municipality. The authorities signed the contract on July 12, 2019, for a cost of Rs 1.56 billion rupees, with the project scheduled for completion by July 11, 2021.
After the contractor failed to complete the work within the specified time, the authorities extended the deadline until July 12, 2023. Since the work was still not finished, they extended the deadline for the third time. During the second extension, the project incurred an additional Rs 102.78 million in costs, raising the revised contract amount to Rs 1.66 billion.
