Kathmandu, July 10
Six domestic construction companies have submitted their applications at the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) to rebuild the iconic Dharahara that collapsed during the earthquake in April 2015.
As per NRA, Raman Construction, Lama Construction, Kalika Construction, Rasuwa Construction, Ashish Construction Service and Kumar Shrestha Construction have submitted their bids to construct Dharahara.
Similarly, one Chinese firm has expressed interest to rebuild the historic monument in joint-venture with a local construction company.
Though Dharahara was initially supposed to be rebuilt by Nepal Telecom (NT), the Cabinet had allowed NRA to reconstruct the iconic landmark on its own after NT retracted from the Dharahara reconstruction process in September last year following a spat over its design.
Consequently, NRA had published a global tender notice on May 18 seeking proposals from interested firms to reconstruct Dharahara. However, foreign firms could participate in the Dharahara rebuilding process only in joint-venture with Nepali construction companies with minority share.
NRA plans to open all the six bids on July 17.
“We were supposed to open the financial and technical bids of interested construction firms today. However, we will open all the bids next week as someone has filed a case at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers claiming anomalies in the process of announcing global tender by NRA,” informed Manohar Ghimire, deputy spokesperson for NRA, adding the issue should be sorted out within the next few days.
Ghimire said that Dharahara rebuilding process will go on a full swing once a competitive firm is awarded the construction contract.
“Of the six applicants, NRA will award the Dharahara reconstruction project to the firm whose proposal is both technically and financially competitive,” he added.
The award winning company will have to rebuild Dharahara as per the design prepared by NRA.
According to the design prepared by NRA, the new Dharahara will be of 22-storey high-tech structure. The first floor of Dharahara will have an ‘earthquake museum’ where various facts and figures of Dharahara and the 2015 quake will be displayed.
The Dharahara reconstruction project is expected to cost almost Rs four billion. The government of Nepal will fund the entire reconstruction project. Ghimire informed that almost Rs 80 million collected from ‘Mero Dharahara Mai Banauchu’ (‘I will rebuild my Dharahara on my own’) campaign will also be used in the Dharahara reconstruction project.
Written by Sandeep
This news first appeared on https://thehimalayantimes.com/business/six-firms-keen-on-rebuilding-dharahara/ under the title “Six firms keen on rebuilding Dharahara”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
