The Gorkha Palace looks set to return to its former shape six years after being damaged by the Barpak earthquake.
Currently, workers are laying tiles on the palace roof which is expected to complete in the next two days. After that, the palace will look complete from the outside.
“This does not mean the reconstruction work is complete. Much remains to be done inside the palace including soling, plastering, installing doors, building fireplaces and partitioning rooms. But at least the façade is complete and visitors will be able to see the building Prithvi Narayan Shah was born in,” Hari Prasad Bhusal, chief of the Gorkha Palace Curator Office, told The Rising Nepal.
“Once the exterior is complete, the Department of Archaeology will decide on how to proceed with the interior works,” Bhusal informed. “The walls are presently wet and cold due to the rains so the lime plaster mix will not stick. We hope to begin working on the interior of the palace from August after the rains subside,” he added.
The contractor Pachali Shiva JV has already completed work on the balcony and the eastern, western and southern lattice windows. Similarly, the western, northern and southern roofs have been tiled. “Work on tiling the eastern roof and installing the northern window is going on and will be finished in the next two days if the weather permits,” Bhusal said.
Pachali Shiva JV had received the Rs. 43.2 million contract to reconstruct the Gorkha Palace from the Department of Archaeology (DoA) in October 2017. As per the contract, the company should have finished the reconstruction by December 16, 2019. However, it could not erect a single storey within the stipulated deadline.
As a result, the DoA extended the contract to June 14, 2020. But work stalled because of the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 24 last year. Taking this into account, the DoA again extended the contract by six months to December 2020. But the contractor failed to meet this deadline too. So, the Department fined it and is now closely monitoring its work.
The Gorkha Palace holds a great significance in the Nepali history because of its association with King Prithvi Narayan Shah and the Shah dynasty. It used to attract thousands of visitors every year before it was destroyed by the 2015 earthquake. After the quake, the decision was made to completely demolish the palace and rebuild it from the ground up.
According to the Gorkha Palace Curator Office, the palace is being rebuilt in its original style using traditional materials.
Source : TRN,
