New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS) With the general election slated for March 5 and results expected within a fortnight, Nepal faces mounting pressure to complete its new Parliament building in time for the elected representatives to take the oath of office, reports say.
There is a constitutional compulsion to call the session within 30 days of the final results of the election to the House of Representatives, the Kathmandu Post report added.
After operating the legislature from a rented building for a decade, the government began construction of dedicated facilities in 2019. The foundation stone for the 12 structures was laid in September that year, with a target completion date of three years.
A joint venture of the China-based Second Harbour Engineering Company and Tundi Construction, a Nepali firm, won the contract, according to the report, which added, “However, even after missing the fifth deadline extension in the past three years, the construction remains incomplete”.
Earlier, the Gallery Baithak on Kathmandu’s Singha Durbar premises housed Nepal’s Parliament since the first general elections in 1959 until the reinstatement of the House in 2006, it added.
The House that was reinstated after the second people’s movement, which saw the rebel Maoists represented for the first time, also functioned from the same building, the report said.
The movement in Nepal is also known as Jana Andolan II, which was an uprising against King Gyanendra’s direct rule. It brought together various political factions, including Maoist insurgents, demanding the restoration of Parliament and democratic reforms.
The Gallery Baithak ran short of space after the number of representatives in the Constituent Assembly increased in 2008, the news website reported. As a result, the Birendra International Convention Centre in Kathmandu’s New Baneshwor was chosen, it said, adding that it was leased to the government, whose agreement was not renewed following an arson that rendered the property unusable.
The Parliament building, noted the article, was the first target of the September Gen Z movement, and it was completely destroyed on September 9. The report quoted officials stressing that the under-construction buildings on the Singha Durbar premises will be ready on time.
“Amid uncertainties, we wrote to the government to make a place available on time for the newly elected House,” Eakram Giri, spokesperson for the secretariat, told Kathmandu Post.
“The Ministry of Urban Development has assured that the new space will be ready in a month and a half,” he added.
The under-construction area, according to the newspaper, spans 7.63 hectares and can accommodate 700 individuals in the chamber designated for the lower house. It will have a seating capacity of 400 for lawmakers on the main floor and 300 in the balcony for the press, visitors, and guests.
The hall, designated for the 59-strong National Assembly, will accommodate over 250. A separate hall with 350 seats is also under construction for joint meetings of the two Houses.
While civil work, which involves the erection of the structure, has been completed, the interiors and the installation of the dome at the top remain incomplete, added the report.
–IANS
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