Kathmandu, January 30

Dhurmus Suntali Foundation and Bharatpur Metropolitan City today reached the agreement for the Gautam Buddha International Cricket Stadium in the presence of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Foundation President Sitaram Kattel and Bharatpur Mayor Renu Dahal exchanged the Memorandum of Understanding amidst the announcement and signing ceremony at City Hall. As per the agreement, Dhurmus Suntali Foundation will prepare the international standard stadium in Bharatpur, Chitwan within two years and hand over it to Bharatpur Metropolitan City.

The Foundation — which has earned national and international reputation after constructing four model villages in different parts of the country in its bid to help the needy people hit hard by the devastating earthquake in 2015 — has estimated a budget of Rs three billion rupees to complete the stadium. Bharatpur Metropolitan City has already allocated the land of 20 bighas and six katthas for the stadium.

According to the Foundation, the lotus-shaped stadium will have a 25,000 capacity international standard cricket venue along with facilities for football, volleyball, basketball, badminton, taekwondo, swimming and fitness centre. It will also have a special lobby for VIP personalities, media centre, LED screens all over the stadium and floodlights for night matches apart from two practice grounds.

Foundation President Kattel said his team would prepare the Detailed project report within six months and announce the hand-over date on the day of foundation stone laying programme. “We also want to give a message that it is not impossible to complete any project on time if we work hard,” said Kattel. “We will construct a stadium in typical Nepali style which will reflect our culture,” he added. “And we would like to assure all the contributors that not even a single penny will be misused in this project.”

PM Oli said two of the most important parts of the project — land acquisition and beginning of the work — had already begun and the government was ready to support the project by all means. “We know one stadium is not enough and we need construct many more. Everyone needs to take initiative and projects like this need support from all quarters of the society,” he added.

Former PM and Member of Parliament from Chitwan, Pushpa Kamal Dahal said the project was the initiation for nation building. Bharatpur Mayor Renu Dahal was hopeful of inviting international teams to play matches in the stadium. “We have planned to host India and Pakistan as the inaugural match of the stadium,” she said.

The Foundation also started the donation drive from the programme and Ace Travels announced the support of Rs 30 million for the stadium. Also, Chitwan Udhyog Parisangh (Rs 5.1m), Chitwan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (Rs 2.1 million), Alka Hospital (Rs 2.5 million), Ravi Raj Singh (Rs 1.1 million) and Krishna Acharya (Rs 500,000) joined hands for the project.