Rup Narayan Dhakal

Pokhara, February 25:

New concrete buildings are replacing the settlement known as old Pokhara. Owners of traditional style houses there said lack of government support for repair and maintenance of the houses had created the situation.

The settlement is in the list of tourist attractions of the city. People are concerned that alongwith striking off a site from the list of places for visitors, tourists may have be to satisfied with old snaps of the place. Houses here are built in the style of traditional houses in Bhaktapur. The place is surrounded by modern concrete buildings, thus enhancing the importance of the place.

Uttam Raj Khanal, the chief of Department of Archaeology-Pokhara said Old Pokhara is not in the government’ conservation list, so there is no rule to stop locals from replacing old houses with concrete ones. The 120-year-old houses between Ram Krishna Tole and Mohoriya Tole are recognised as Old Pokhara. One can see traces of traditional Newari lift at Toles including Bhairav Tole, Ganesh Tole, Bagale Tole, Nalako Mukh, Tersapatti, Ranipauwa and Bhimsen Tole.

Krishna Prasad Parajuli, former Pokhara sub-metropolis-4 chairman, said the Pokhara City Development Committee had annulled the ban on demolition of old houses and build new ones in Old Pokhara on popular demand in 1999. He added that the government had failed to meet its promise to provide fund to maintain such houses. “Lack of maintenance means a threat of house collapse. Some houses collapsed during my tenure”, the former ward chairman said. Locals don’t seem interested in saving the heritage in the absence of government initiative. Some houses are inhabited but many people and are in a dilapidated condition.

Dil Bahadur Chhetri, the Prithvi Narayan campus chief, said Newars of Bhaktapur had created the settlement around 1750-51. Batulechaur area was inhabited when the early Shah dynasty king Kul Mandan Shah constructed a winter palace. The Newars had settled down at the place little later. A local Hari Shrestha said the place was also known as Chhabbis Kuriya because there were 26 households at the place. The houses in the Old Pokhara are one to three storied, some have slate roofs while some have thatched roofs. Many houses are painted with red soil. The doors, windows and tundals have artistic carvings.

A Ram Krishna Tole resident Tek Lal KC, 66 said the building materials for the houses were brought from the sites around Pokhara and the bricks too, were produced in the city. But, with urbanisation, modern concrete houses are being erected in the Old Pokhara. Some have built concrete houses adjoining traditional houses. The trend of demolishing old houses for building concrete houses is on the rise. KC said, “If I had enough money, I would also have constructed a concrete house”. He said the settlement is over 120 years old. Some of the houses have developed cracks following the great quake in 1938.

Locals said the government had set up rules according to which residents, building new houses at the settlement, could get timber from government and they were required to adopt old artistic style for windows and doors. The government was also expected to give financial aid to old house owners and to provide facilities to locals to live in those houses. But, all the government plans have remained on paper.