By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, July 20: The liaison office of the Nepal Sanskrit University (NSU), formerly Mahendra Sanskrit University, supported by wooden strut, waiting for reconstruction after April 25, 2015 is finally going to be renovated this year.
The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) and the Department of Archaeology (DoA) have allocated Rs. 5 million for the liaison office of the Nepal Sanskrit University of Basantapur.
The government has allocated only Rs. 5 million while Rs. 50 million was demanded for the reconstruction of the office.
Heritage reconstruction budget has been reduced this year as more budget was allocated to fight COVID-19, no new heritage reconstruction project will run this fiscal year and only the earlier works will be continued, according to the planning division of the DoA.
Director General of DoA Damodar Gautam said that the process to rebuild the liaison office building of NSU will start in the current fiscal year.
Earlier, no concerned body had notice the dilapidated condition of old building of Basantapur even six years after the massive earthquake.
Reconstruction of this educational institution located in a tourist site like Kathmandu Durbar Square was an utter negligence on the part of the authorities and concerned stakeholders even when reconstruction and renovation works of the Basantapur Durabr Square were moving at a fast pace.
The government has allocated budget but it has not fixed whether the building would be reconstructed or retrofitted, according to DoA.
The dispute about land ownership between the Nepal Sanskrit University and Trhibhuvan University has also not been resolved, nor have they taken any imitative to rebuild the severely cracked building. The building has been an eyesore for the locals and visitors.
The four-and a-half-storeys structure has been standing in support of 14 logs for six years.
NSU has shifted its liaison office from the building after the building’s wall cracked in the earthquake.