Works to retrofit Tri-Chandra Campus, the oldest campus in the country, and its Clock Tower (Ghantaghar) will begin in a couple of months.
The Central Level Project Implementation Unit (CLPIU), Department of Urban Development and Building Construction under the Ministry of Urban Development, has already allocated Rs. 500 million for the project.
Kosh Nath Adhikari, project director of CLPIU, said that a technical proposal tender, the first phase tender, will be called immediately after Dashain festival. If all things go as planned, the retrofitting process will begin after two months.
Initially, Rs. 500 million has been estimated for this project but it will complete in less than the estimated budget, he said. “It will take around two years to complete the project because we have to use traditional materials and find skilled workers, who are not easily found,” he added.
Other damaged structures near the oldest campus Ranipokhari and Durbar High School have already been reconstructed, but Tri-Chandra Campus had not been in priority for seven years after the Gorkha earthquake caused damages to it.
He said that a team of engineers with project director of the CLPIU had already inspected the campus building.
Because of delay in maintenance, the southern side of the campus building collapsed in monsoon last year. As a result, the oldest campus of the country now looks like a poor abandoned building at the first glance.
In the fiscal year 2021/22, the government had also planned to rebuild the campus. Finance Minister Janardan Sharam had announced plans to renovate Tri-Chandra Campus and Ghantaghar but the plans were not implemented.
The campus had suffered two major earthquakes in 1934 and 2015 after its establishment in 1918 during the reign of Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher.
Source : TRN,
