BABIYACHAUR, MYAGDI: An entrepreneur has commissioned the construction of a pilgrims' guest house at Galeshwardham, the famous pilgrimage site in Beni Municipality-9 of Myagdi district.

The guest house for the pilgrims is being constructed with the monetary support worth five million rupees from Govinda Saraswati Foundation, set up by Govinda Das Shrestha of Kathmandu. Shrestha is the operator of Hotel Radisson in Kathmandu.

Shrestha and his spouse Saraswati, along with their family members, jointly laid the foundation stone to begin the construction of the two-storied guest house.

Shrestha shared that the purpose for his investing in building the pilgrims' guest house was that he wanted to give a portion of what he had earned back to the people by serving the society. He also requested other businessmen to allocate a part of their income for the welfare of social sector.

The guest house will have six rooms and would accommodate as many as 100 people. The Galeshwar Shivalaya Area Development Trust has taken charge of constructing the guest house.

Chairman of the Trust Rudra Bahadur KC said, the guest house is being constructed due to increment in the number of pilgrims at Galeshwardham, which is regarded as the doorway to Muktinath, the common pilgrimage site of Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims. He added that with the completion of the guest house, Galeshwar will have the capacity to facilitate the accommodation of around 500 pilgrims on a daily basis. Presently, the pilgrimage site through existing guest houses can accommodate around 400 pilgrims, who are provided with free meals.

"In the infrastructure development of Galeshwar, in his personal capacity, Shrestha has provided the largest support so far," said the Member Secretary of the Trust, Madhav Prasad Regmi.

On a large rock spread over an area of nine ropanis in the banks of Kaligandaki River, the pilgrimage site of Galeshwardham is situated, which lodges a temple of Lord Shiva, along with other infrastructures such as an ashram (hermitage) for senior citizens, residence for priests, community health unit, walking pathway, camping site, children's playground, guest houses for pilgrims, among others.

Along with these, preparations are going on to construct 108 taps within the Galeshwar premises by lifting water from Kaligandaki River and a suspension bridge over the river in the area.