KATHMANDU: The quake-damaged building of the Central Blood Transfusion Service at Pradarshani Marg will be demolished for reconstruction of a new and better structure, officials said.

A new building will be constructed with the financial support from Thai Red Cross Society. The Central Blood Transfusion Service has to bear the technical responsibility for demolishing the building.

The 40-year-old three-storey building has not only developed cracks but is also not spacious for storing blood testing kits and other heavy equipment.

Additionally, there is a huge flow of staff, blood donors and service seekers on a daily basis. Over 300-400 blood donors throng the congested Central Blood Transfusion Service every day.

Jiwan Tara Bhatta, Senior Administrative Officer at the Central Blood Transfusion Service, said, “We are also suffering from space crunch for the blood bank, laboratory and blood collection room in the present building.

Likewise, the space crunch is obstructing smooth flow of staff, blood donors and service seekers.

There should be at least three internal units of lab, but the space is too small for the construction of labs.” It has only one unit of lab now.

TRCS will be providing $ 2,000,000 for the construction of a new four-storey concrete building. The quake-safety building will have spacious laboratory and cold rooms along with warehouse and blood collection room.

The facility’s building that had been built with masonry wall system suffered a serious damage by the April earthquake.

The staircases of the building were dislodged while the boundary walls had collapsed and multiple cracks surfaced in walls due to subsequent aftershocks. Similarly, the cold room has been marked unsafe for storing blood testing kits after its walls developed deep cracks.

The aftershocks have caused further damage to the building that had already cracked and slightly tilted.

“The infrastructure is old, small, congested and weak for the operation. It needs to be replaced with a new building by 2016,” said Bhatta. He added that a notice has been issued to eatery operators and stationary owners urging them to vacate six shutters located on the roadside of the building within next 35 days.

“The shutters were rented out to eatery operators and stationary owners. They have to leave before the demolition works which will begin next month,” he said.

The CBTS would be temporarily shifted to Emergency Blood Bank in Balkumari of Lalitpur during the construction of the new buildings after the demolition.