Bhairahawa, April 30

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari laid the foundation stone for an international level Global Buddhist Sabha Hall in Lumbini today in the presence of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

The hall will be earthquake-resistant and of international standard.

Lumbini Development Fund Engineer Saroj Bhattarai said the sabha hall will accommodate 5,000 people and a new technology will be installed for automatic partition as per the necessity.

With the deadline of finishing work in two years, the sabha hall construction is estimated to cost 400 million rupees.

The Lumbini Development Fund said the hall will be a model one in Asia.

Earlier, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was scheduled to lay the foundation stone for the hall but, the programme was put off as Oli was busy with other functions.

Prime Minister Oli, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari, Province 5 Chief Minister Shankar Pokhrel, among others, were present at the programme.