Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, February 10:

The Social Welfare Council (SWC) is planning to construct a market complex at the Bhrikuti Mandap.

Temporary stalls are located there at present. The SWC has allocated a budget of Rs 6 million for the fiscal year 2060-61. The construction will be carried out in three phases. In the first phase, 450 concrete shops will be built on 39 ropanis of land. The Bhrikuti Mandap Management Office (BMMO), a section of the SWC to manage the cheap goods market, is to reconstruct and design the Bhrikuti Mandap market, which is spread on the exhibition ground in front of Singha Durbar. Ram Raj Bhattarai, the BMMO chief said, the environmental change due to the shoppers at Bhrikuti Mandap will not only benefit the shop-owners and customers but the SWC and the BMMO will also have a sustainable income.

“There will be drinking water, toilet and electricity facilities for the shops inside Bhrikuti Mandap.”

Bhattarai informed that after completion of its design and estimation, the tenders will be invited. “We will work on the deficit budget after the final estimation is over,” he said.

The BMMO earns Rs 350,000 monthly from these stalls. But it is not clear how the rent money is being used.

The Bhrikuti Mandap market is spread over 39 ropanis which was once a fertile land left by Tukucha river before it was acquired by the government to build the exhibition ground in the 1960s. The cheap goods market has 1,350 stalls, each occupying 42 square metres of land. The temporary market being held was displaced from Tundikhel in 1992.

Since the authorities concerned could not provide an alternative to the stall-owners, they settled in Bhrikuti Mandap on a temporary basis. They have been holding their stalls and selling cheap goods at Bhrikuti Mandap since then.