The Kathmandu Valley is the centre of many Jatras and festivals marked throughout the year. Among them is the Indra Jatra which is famous.

The Jatra is celebrated in the premises of the Basantapur Durbar Square with chariot processions and other cultural festivities.

However, it is painful to say that the Basantapur Durbar Square is still in a dilapidated condition after the devastating earthquake last year. To the best of my knowledge, at this particular time, nothing has happened to rebuild it with its original shape and texture.

It is the Department of Archaeology which has to approve the design, materials to be used and other requirements at par with the UNESCO guidelines. Being listed in the World Heritage Site, the Basantapur Durbar Square needs to be built without compromising its originality.

There are other historical and cultural monuments which need to be reconstructed at the earliest so that cultural tourism can revive soon. The government has enough money to reconstruct them.

The only thing is that the concerned authorities have not taken an extra mile to complete the task. It may take many years to complete the task.

But the point is that we need to start working on them. The concerned authorities must tell the public why it took so long to start the job of reconstruction of the monuments destroyed during the earthquake.

These represent human civilisation, culture and religion; they cannot be left unattended for long. Human history will be erased if we fail to rebuild them quickly.

Saroj Wagle, Bara

Traffic lights

This is with reference to the news story “Solar light to be installed in all wards of Kathmandu” (THT, September 19, Page 2).

It is a welcome step that the metropolitan city will install solar light in all wards. The streets will be illuminated with solar lights and they will replace the halogen lights that consume a lot of electricity. It may be a good idea.

But what I would like to suggest the metropolitan and the government is that it would be better to bring the traffic lights back to operation. Almost all the traffic light in the valley developed with the help of Japanese assistance have been dysfunctional after a couple of years of their construction.

Instead of installing all wards with solar lights it would be better to repair the traffic lights operated by batteries powered by solar panels.

It does not take billions of rupees to repair the traffic lights as their batteries can be replaced with a few million rupees and the solar panel can be brought to operation after removing the dust covering the panels.

Once the traffic lights are brought back to operation with repairs a lot of traffic jam can be eased and the traffic police do not need to handle the vehicular traffic manually.

The government will be doing great service to the public if it repairs the traffic lights built with Japanese assistance during the festive season.

Anuradha Pandey, Kathmandu