Photos by: Sanjog Manandhar

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said the country has entered a new era in terms of economic prosperity and development with the promulgation of the constitution through the Constituent Assembly.

On the occasion of the inaugural ceremony of the renovated Gaddi Baithak Building based in Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square on Wednesday, the Prime Minister highlighted the mythical, historic and cultural significance of the heritage site.

He took the time to thank the US Embassy in Kathmandu for financially supporting the restoration of the infrastructure damaged by the 2015 April Earthquake.

Recalling the major earthquake that hit the country to its core and huge losses of lives and property including cultural and historic heritages caused by it, the Prime Minister said the helping hands provided by our neighbours including the US to Nepal during such situation meant a lot for it and was noteworthy.

The Prime Minister went on to say that the government was committed to maintaining standard in the reconstruction of quake-damaged structures."Now journey towards the course of development and prosperity has begun following the completion of political struggles," he said.

The historic Gaddi Baithak dating back to the Rana period stands as a memorial to the European architectural style was retrofitted and renovated in partnership of the Miyamoto Global Disaster Relief and Department of Archaeology, Nepal Government. The US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation AFCP had sponsored 700,000 US dollar for this.

Thanking the concerned agencies for supporting the reconstruction, renovation and retrofitting of the quake-damaged cultural heritages in the country, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Prasad Adhikari stated that such efforts would contribute towards the conservation of cultural heritages as well as in promotion of tourism.

On the occasion, US Charge d' Affaires Peter Malnak said that the collaborative effort between Nepali and American cultural heritage experts had presented an opportunity to restore and seismically strengthen Gaddi Baithak.

Furthermore, Malnak said, "Gaddi Baithak is one of the most important structures of Nepal's cultural heritage and history. This real result was made possible by our governments and communities working together collaboratively."

The engineering experts on seismic-resilience technique had collaborated with the architecture experts on the same sector for the restoration of the Gaddi Baithak.

Local artisans and traditional construction materials and techniques were employed for the restoration of this building built during the Rana regime.

PM Oli and Charge d' Affaires jointly inaugurated the newly reconstructed Mahadev Temple, Kageshwor Temple, Laxmi Narayan Temple and Saraswati Temple in the premises that were built in the 17th and 19th century.

These Newari style architectural monuments were restored and seismically strengthened by the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust in financial aid of the American government through AFCP which had provided USD 2 million through emergency grant.

According to the American Embassy in Nepal, AFCP is the most significant cultural preservation initiative abroad by the American government and since 2001 it has supported over 850 projects to preserve cultural heritages in more than 125 countries.

In Nepal, over the past two decades, 22 projects were completed totalling over $3.4 million. RSS