By Narendra Dhakal
Gorkha, Dec. 17: Siranchowk Rural Municipality, in Gorkha, has decided to construct religiously and historically significant Shreenath Mandali Park and other buildings on the premises of Sreenath Mandali Temple.
“We have decided to conduct various programmes to develop Shreenathkot Mandali, as a tourist destination,” said Raju Gurung, Chairman of the municipality, adding, “As a part of the programme, we are constructing a park and other buildings.”

Similarly, Sudip Baral, engineer at the municipality, said that the park was being constructed near Jethakot, along with a temple entrance gate, a Buddhist monastery and a garden on the temple premises.
All the buildings are being constructed in two ropanis of land within the temple area. A budget of Rs. 5.2 million has been earmarked for the construction.
Likewise, Rs. 3.3 million budget has been set aside and a contract agreement has been signed with Haramtari Construction for the construction of the park.

In addition, the municipality is also constructing a building reflecting the archaeological importance of the area. It plans to develop the building as a museum.
Moreover, a memorial of five distinguished personalities of the municipality is also being constructed in the park. “The monument will have five facets and the details of five brave personalities will be mentioned on each face,” said Chairman Gurung.

“History of warriors who fought to protect Siranchowk fort -- Bhimsen Thapa, national hero Amar Singh Thapa, King Prithvi Narayan Shah’s soldier Jhagal Gurung, Drabya Shah’s chief soldier Ganesh Pandey and Pandit Narayan Aryal will be carved out on the statues,” he said.
Siranchowk is connected with the warriors who contributed immensely to the unification campaign of Nepal. Thus, we are constructing the memorial to pay tribute to them, added Chairman Gurung.

Shreenath Mandali also holds an archaeological importance. In 1616 BS, King Drabya Shah had extended his territory up to Gorkha via Siranchowk after conquering Ligligkot.
The Siranchowk fort was developed as the protector of Gorkha when King Shah was expanding the boundary of his kingdom.

“The Siranchowk fort was used as a strategic fort for 222 years until the unification of western Nepal,” said Chairman Gurung, adding, “This historic place is limited to books until now. We have been unable to make enough publicity of the area.”
“Thus, we are making efforts for the promotion of this historic place. However, much more needs to be done,” he said.

According to history, during the expansion of Nepal, King Prithvi Narayan Shah had established Shreenath battalion as the first horde of his army.

The Shreenath Mandali at Siranchowk also holds a huge religious importance. In Skanda Puran written by Yogi Narahari Nath, it has been mentioned that Gorkhanath Baba had spent his entire childhood in the area.
“All the programmes that we have planned are in the first phase of implementation. We have already prepared a Detailed Project Report (DPR) and are planning to move to the second phase soon,” said Gurung, adding that an agreement had been reached with the Nepali Army (NA) regarding conservation of the Siranchowk Kot.

Chairman Gurung had laid the foundation stone for the construction of the memorial park and other infrastructures on December 4 with an aim to complete the construction by the end of the current fiscal year.